African investor and philanthropist Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede has announced the names of the five young persons he has selected to join him for a year in a special and bespoke mentorship programme created to celebrate the publication in March and ongoing success of his memoir, Leaving the Tarmac: Buying a Bank in Africa.

The five mentored interns will be fully salaried and will join Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede and his management team across the ecosystem of his businesses and extensive philanthropic initiatives, learning from him and receiving his best advice and counsel as they embark on their professional journeys.

The Leaving the Tarmac interns were selected from more than 500 applicants after a rigorous and competitive process. They are: Raqibatu Zukaneni (a BSc Agricultural Economics and Extension graduate from Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma, Edo State); Awe Oluwatosin Doyinsola (an MBA student from the University of Lilongwe); Jeremiah Enoch (a law graduate from Bowen University); Vivian Eze (a law graduate from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka); and Sadiq Yusuf (an economics graduate from the Ahmadu Bello University).

“I am delighted and proud to welcome these exceptional young individuals on board,” Mr Aig-Imoukhuede says. “They exemplify the spirit, tenacity and can-do attitude that’s characteristic of the Nigerian youth. It’s my privilege and honour to mentor them and I look forward to working with them, to fine-tuning their aptitude and talents, and setting them on a path to achieving goals that not only enrich their own lives, but also add tangible value to the lives of others, the society and world at large.”

Aig-Imoukhuede says his own career benefited immensely from mentoring advice and support he enjoyed in his early days as a banker. It is his responsibility, and his honour, to do for others what was done for him as a young man.

In Leaving the Tarmac: Buying a Bank in Africa he says: “I hope that the story I am about to tell will be an inspiration to other young entrepreneurs who are setting out with big dreams, great visions and high hopes. I believe we must speak confidently about our story of transformation if we are to inspire others to achieve the same.”

Leaving the Tarmac: Buying a Bank in Africa tells the story, in Mr Aig-Imoukhuede’s own words, of how he and his partner, Mr Herbert Wigwe, acquired lackluster Access Bank and turned it into a financial service powerhouse in eleven short years.

The book has become a Nigerian bestseller and has been variously described as an account “that gives young Nigerians the inspiration to dream, weather the storm and achieve greatness” (Amina J Mohammed, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General); and “a powerful tale of leadership and institution-building” (Ngaire Woods, founding dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, UK).

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