Senator Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim PhD, FCIB, was born in Ojoku town in Oyun local government area in Kwara State on 12 December 1966 into the family of Alhaji Ibrahim Ayinla Kajogbola and Alhaja Rafatu Adunni Ibrahim.
Senator Rafiu Ibrahim was a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from Kwara State. He represented Kwara South in the 8th National Assembly. Senator Ibrahim was the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, and also a member of Senate Committees on Appropriation, Federal Character and Inter Government Affairs, and Media and Public Affairs.
Ibrahim started his education at Ojoku Grammar School where he obtained his West African Senior School Certificate Examination in 1985. He then proceeded to Kwara State Polytechnic where he graduated in 1987. He obtained his masters in the University of Ado Ekiti, Ekiti state, where he bagged Masters in Business Administration in the year 2000 and later bagged a doctorate degree PhD in Business Administration from Lead City University in 2009. He is equally an alumnus of Lagos Business School where he underwent the professional entrepreneurship management program and was the Vice President of his class. Ibrahim was also in Harvard Kennedy School for Innovation for Economic Development in April 2016 and Leadership for the 21st Century: Chaos, Conflict and Courage in 2018.
Ibrahim joined the Banking industry in 1990 and became an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria in 1995. He was also conferred with the Fellow of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (FCIB) in 2009 and was chairman, Kwara Branch of CIBN in the same year through to 2010.
Ibrahim is an experienced banker and financial expert of 15 years in banking practice, specializing in Investment, Treasury Management and Project Finance. His experience in business management cut across various sectors with interests in financial consultancy/services, marketing, security printing, manufacturing, construction and project development, concession-airing and management. Before his foray into politics, he was the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Ibrafunds Limited
Ibrahim started off his political career, under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), as a member of Kwara State House of Assembly in 2009, and was later elected in April 2011 to represent Ifelodun/Offa/Oyun Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives of Nigeria of the 7th National Assembly. Ibrahim rose to become a Senator of the Federal Republic in 2015 when he was elected to represent Kwara South Senatorial District at the Nigerian Senate. He lost his re-election bid into the 9th National Assembly in the 2019 general elections.
As a very successful lawmaker, he sponsored many economic bills. Prominent among them are: Credit Bureau Reporting Act 2017 and Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act 2017. Both were signed in to law by the then Acting President Yemi Osibajo SAN, and these two Acts were part of the basis for Nigeria positive movement on the Ease of Doing Business Index by 24 (145th from 169th).
These contributions won him the IMPACT Award by PEBEC (Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council) presented to him personally by the Vice President himself, Prof. Yemi Osibajo, as the Chairman of the Council.
Ibrahim’s political strides are laced with philanthropic gestures. As the founder of Rafiu Ibrahim Foundation, he is known for educational scholarships, entrepreneurship training and youth and women empowerment. In October 2017, the foundation partnered with the Africa Leadership Forum and the Entrepreneurship Development Center (EDC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to train 200 young people from 7 local government areas in Kwara South Senatorial District on skill acquisition and financial literacy.
Congratulations to our Icon of Quarter 2, 2023.
