LAGOS HAS DECIDED

LAGOS HAS DECIDED

Who is Akinwunmi AMBODE?
Ambode was born on June 14, 1963 at the Epe General Hospital, Epe, Lagos, as the sixth of ten children. His late father, Festus Akinwale Ambodewas a teacher while his mother, Christianah Oluleye Ambode (nee Oresanya) was an entrepreneur who ran a thriving sewing business
in her prime. In 1967, when Akin was still four years old, his father moved to the mainland part of
Lagos with the family and continued his teaching career until his death in 1981.

Akinwunmi Ambode began his education at St. Jude’s Primary School,
Ebutte Meta, Lagos, Nigeria in 1969. In 1974, while still in Primary 5, he sat for the National Common Entrance Examinations and was admitted to Federal
Government College, Warri in the same year. Ambode spent 7 years in Warri, where he completed his Ordinary and Advanced Levels and had the distinction of achieving the second best
result in all of West Africa in the Higher School Certificate Examinations in 1981.

He was on the school’s Hockey and Cricket teams and was part of the then Bendel State Cricket team while still a
student. Ambode proceeded to University of Lagos where he studied Accounting, graduating at the age of 21 in 1984. He completed his mandatory National
Youth Service Corps year serving with the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sokoto, Sokoto State, where he  started his relationship with the Public Service.

After his NYSC year, Ambode commenced his career at the Lagos State Waste Disposal Board (now LAWMA) as Accountant Grade II. He enrolled for Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN)
exams and at the same time was awarded a Federal Government Scholarship to pursue a Masters Degree in Accounting at the University of Lagos.

By the time he was 24, Ambode had qualified as a Chartered Accountant and had completed his
Masters Degree programme in Accounting,
specializing in Financial Management.
His career was fast-tracked and in 1988,
Akinwunmi Ambode was appointed the Assistant Treasurer, Badagry Local Government. In 1991, he was posted to Shomolu Local Government as
Auditor. He was later deployed to Alimosho Local Government as Council Treasurer. Ambode was
posted back to Shomolu as Council Treasurer and
later on to Mushin Local Government as Council Treasurer.

He criss-crossed many Local Government
Councils in different roles in a 10-year period and
got a first-hand experience of the direct impact of governance on the citizenry.
In 1998, Ambode was awarded the US Fulbright Scholarship for the Hubert H. Humphrey
Fellowship program, in Boston University,
Massachusetts, USA. His Fellowship Year was spent
studying Public Leadership with emphasis on Finance and Accounting. During this programme
Ambode had professional internships at The Federal
Reserve Bank of Boston, the Cabinet Office of Administration and Finance (Governor’s Office), City of Boston Treasury Office as well as with the
World Bank and IMF.
On his return from the programme, Ambode became acting Auditor General for Local Government.

This position was confirmed by the
State House of Assembly in 2001.
In January 2005, Ambode was redeployed to
mainstream public service as the permanent
secretary of the Ministry of Finance. By February 2006, Ambode was given the added responsibility
ofaccountant general for Lagos State, in charge of all the financial activities of the state and directly
responsible for over 1400 accountants in the state service.

Under his watch, the State Treasury Office
(STO) revolutionized the way Lagos State finances were raised, budgeted, managed and planned. In his six years as the Lagos State accountant general, the
state's financial performance improved visibly with
the budget performing at a remarkable average of 85% annually. Ambode believes that "public
financial management is about ensuring that public
money is well spent and it is made to stretch as far as possible. It provides leaders and public-sector
managers with information to make decisions and to know if they are using resources effectively.

After 27 years in the civil service, Ambode
voluntarily retired in August 2012. He founded Brandsmiths Consulting Limited to provide Public Finance and Management Consulting services to
government at all levels, its parastatals and
agencies.

Brandsmiths, in collaboration with Price Waterhouse Coopers, has trained government accountants and finance personnel to prepare them
for the cut-over to the International Public Sector Accounting System (IPSAS) which is to become effective in 2015.

His belief in mentoring and passion for passing on leadership skills gave birth to
La Roche Leadership Foundation , which he founded in 2012. This is a non-profit organization that has a mandate to
develop the educational and leadership skills of young Nigerians, to inculcate in them leadership values as a way of grooming future leaders in all
spheres of life.

La Roche is presently spearheading
an initiative, ‘The Flags Project’, to install Nigerian and Lagos State flags in all government owned
schools in Lagos State. The Foundation has also donated tools to technical colleges to support training of artisans.