The richest banker! Amazing wealth and guilty pleasures of FirstBank former MD, Bisi Onasanya

• How he made his fortune and supported tycoons during his tenure as First Bank chief
• His untold secrets and stakes in the business sector

Money is often regarded as the common whore, the universal procurer of people and nations. On the flipside, it is the perfect means for bribing yourself through the inconveniences of life. Ask Bisi Onasanya. The former Managing Director (MD) of First Bank Nigeria Plc cultivated the money habit in markedly different tradition from the ways of his peers.

While too many of his peers, gained from their wealth only the fear of losing it, Onasanya gained from his wealth, comfort, contentment and a deep sense of purpose.

The former bank MD understood quite early in life, that there are no little ways to imbue his life with grandeur. He understood that money matters in the mix, in his pursuit of ease and luxury. More importantly, Onasanya regarded money as the only sunbeams that lights his path to grandeur. Nothing is black where it shines. That is why his life is radiant with light.

While he served as MD of First Bank, Onasanya worked very hard and saved very hard, his hard-earned money. Today, he is reaping the fruit of his labour. Indeed, Onasanya is one very sharp dude who planned his retirement very well. Findings revealed that he is most likely the richest retired bank chief in the country, considering his extensive fortune and business interests.

Besides being intimidatingly solvent, Onasanya lives a charmed life. No sooner did he retire from First Bank than he relocated from his Ikoyi residence to a sprawling mansion on Banana Island, in Lagos.
At his new mansion, Onasanya has on display, the choicest and most expensive automobiles. And just recently, he added 2017 models of the most expensive auto brands to his fleet of cars.

Forget his cars, Onasanya owns a massive farm in Epe/Lekki axis of Lagos State. He also owns impressive stakes in the coastal city’s real estate sector. This includes posh apartments in the most exclusive and highbrow areas of Lekki. Hence even though he is retired, Onasanya is making a hell of money from his farm and posh apartments.

There is no gainsaying Onasanya made a lot of money while he served as head honcho of First Bank. He also helped a lot of Nigerian magnates to make a lot of money. For instance, it was during his tenure as MD of First Bank that the bank lent out money to the highest number of people. It was also during his tenure that the bank suffered the highest number of non-performing loans. Thus many businessmen made their fortune via Onasanya’s very accommodating loan schemes.

Born in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Onasanya hails from the Onasanya Family in Ijebu Land, Ogun State. He grew up in Lagos, where he attended St Paul’s Anglican Primary School (Mushin), Eko Boys High School (Mushin), and the then Lagos State College of Science and Technology. Onasanya is the eldest of four children from his mother, and the third of his father’s children.

He is a former Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of First Bank of Nigeria Limited. He was before this appointment, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of First Pension Custodian, and began his career with Arthur Young, an American audit firm. A chartered accountant, Onasanya is credited with pioneering initiatives in Nigeria’s nascent pension custody industry that helped define best industry practices.

At First Bank Nigeria Limited where he held diverse portfolios before his appointment as Group Managing Director, he coordinated the bank’s Century 2 Enterprise Transformation Project, widely acknowledged as one of the most important phases of the bank’s early transformation initiatives in response to an increasingly competitive financial services landscape.

A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, a Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, and an Associate Member of the Nigerian Institute of Taxation, Bisi has served as a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers’ Sub-Committee on Fiscal & Monetary Policies, and of the Presidential Committee on Reduction of Interest Rates.