An Entrepreneur In Underwriting Business

Akin Ogunbiyi is the current chairman of Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, a company he founded in 1995.

To be precise, on October 2, 1995, Akin Ogunbiyi established Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc, and the insurer has grown to be one of the competitive insurance firms in Nigeria with many products for Nigerians including Mutual Benefits Microfinance Bank. Today, the company has subsidiaries, and branches in two African countries.

Ogunbiyi is a risk taker who dare big challenges and ready to face the consequences of his actions and this trait was what brought him in insurance business, where has has excelled even more than those he met in the underwriting profession.

He was one of the proactive staff members at NICON to pursue this new venture in insurance consulting.

In 1973, he went to Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city, for holidays where he worked as a vendor on the streets of Lagos, and in Lagos, worked as a bus conductor even when he was an undergraduate at the university.

Akin Ogunbiyi is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, London. He trained in insurance in NICON. He then joined the Finance and Insurance Experts Limited – a multi-disciplinary consultancy firm. He is a pioneer Associate Director. Ogunbiyi is a fellow of the Institute Directors, Nigeria.

While hundreds of people nursed the fear of what lies ahead if they quit their jobs, Ogunbiyi never did when he pulled out of a company in 1990s to fulfil his dream of becoming an employer of labour.

Ogunbiyi while speaking on the challenges he faced while setting up his insurance firm said, revealed that, he sold his four cars after seeking the approval of his wife who was at the time operating a supermarket and doubled as a teacher.

“At a point, we got stuck and my wife sold everything in the supermarket and gave me N4million. The only thing left was the cash machine. So, that was how we started the company,” he said this in earlier interview.

In 2018, Ogunbiyi decided to venture into politics fully, and he registered under the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). He picked the nomination form to contest for Governor of Osun State in the same year. Ogunbiyi was defeated by seven votes on July 23, 2018 PDP primaries by Ademola Adeleke.

It’s important to note that on January 13, 2022, he was among the six governorship aspirants in Osun who were cleared to slug it out at the PDP’s primaries.

Currently, his investment worth is over several billions of naira. He has investment in Osun, Lagos and other African countries.

Akin Ogunbiyi was born in Ile-Ogbo, Osun State in 1962.  His parents were farmers and his father served as chairman  of the Trade Association.

For his elementary education, he attended Ile-Ogbo Primary School, Ile-Ogbo, Osun State.

From there, he proceeded to Ile-Ogbo Modern School and Luther King’s College, Ile-Ogbo.

He attended the College of Art and Science, Ile-Ife (OSCARS) to special classes for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

He proceeded to the prestigious University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) after his West African Senior School Certificate Examination and UTME which he passed in flying colours.

At OAU, he bagged BSc in Agricultural Economics. He has a degree in History and an M Sc in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

He would later attend an Executive Masters in Business Administration at the International Graduate School of Management, University of Navarra (IESE) in Barcelona, Spain.

His love for quality education prompted him to proceed to the University of Oxford to attend Oxford Advanced Management & Leadership Programme and Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Not just that, he is also an alumnus of Lagos Business School and a PhD in Insurance and Risk Management.

He is a member of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria and the Chartered Insurance Institute of London (FCIIN).

He is a member of the Nigerian Institute of Directors (FIoD), the West African Insurance Institute (BAII), and the Risk Managers Society of Nigeria (RMSN) (RIMSON).

Ogunbiyi has earned the highest honour bestowed by the prestigious University of Ife, The Commander Great Ife (CGI) title, where he started his educational career, at the London Insurance Institute, he is ranked as an Associate.