Board of Directors
MUHAMMED AWWAL SALIHU
Group CEO
Muhammed is the Group CEO of Credent Capital and Advisory Limited and Chief Investment Officer of its Credent Investment Managers Limited – it’s Fund Management subsidiary. Up until June 2024 he was a Director and Head of Abuja & Northern Nigeria Region for KPMG in West Africa. Prior to this role, he was a Manager in the Deal Origination Team of Afreximbank in Cairo, Egypt. In this position, he helped to originate and finance deals in excess of $3 billion on the African continent. He also managed the Russian Desk of Afreximbank, where he oversaw the inflow of hundreds of millions of dollars in trade finance lines of credit from Russian banks and the Russian Export Centre.
Muhammed’s career in financial services started in Diamond Bank where he was a Personal Banking Officer for about two years. He subsequently moved to KPMG Professional Services where he trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant. Thereafter, he joined Sigma Pensions as a Senior Manager and Head of Investments where he oversaw the management of pension assets in excess of $800 million at the time. He eventually left to set up a boutique financial advisory firm which he ran for about 6 years before joining Afreximbank in Cairo.
Muhammed is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and has completed an MBA programme at the prestigious London Business School.
Alh. Muhammad Kabir Ahmad (chairman)
MUHAMMAD K. AHMAD, OON is the Chairman of the Board of Credent Capital and Advisory Limited and has about 35 years distinguished experience leading and working in various public sector organisations and financial services institutions, especially in banking, pension and insurance. He was the pioneer Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Pension Commission and oversaw the establishment and growth of the Pension industry in Nigeria with over ₦6 trillion in assets to become a major contributor to Nigeria’s GDP. He is currently the Chairman of both the Skye Bank Plc and the Interim Board of International Energy Assurance Plc. He also chairs the Boards of Taj Bank and Credent Capital Advisory, both being promoted for the provision of financial services. Ahmad belongs to a group of eminent Nigerians working with Africapractice and BMGF to build high-level political support for the promotion of Financial Inclusion in Nigeria.
Ahmad Chairs the Technical Committee of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) chaired by the Vice President of Nigeria. He was recently appointed to Chair the Technical Committee on National Code for Corporate Governance by the Financial Reporting Council. Ahmad is the founder of Jewel Development Foundation, a graduate assistance programme; and Certium Consulting, a strategic advisory and business applications company. Mr. Ahmad has served on the boards of various corporate and not-for-profit organisations as well as presidential committees. Ahmad had worked at the Central Bank of Liberia as the Advisor and Technical Director on Bank Supervision under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) Programme.
Ahmad chaired the Technical Committee that produced the North East Transformation Strategy (NESTS), a medium term Regional Development Strategy, for the sustainable socio-economic transformation and reconstruction of the Region, a strategy promoted by the six Governors of the constituent states of the region. He also coordinated the development of the Buhari Plan, which is the Federal Government strategy document for the rebuilding of the North East that led to the constitution of the Presidential Committee on the North East Initiative (PCNI).
He strongly promotes building institutions based on the highest corporate governance and ethical standards. He has a Masters Diploma in Innovation and Strategy from University of Oxford, United Kingdom and has also attended courses and programmes in various first-rate business and management schools, including Harvard Business School, USA and INSEAD Fontainebleau, France. He is married with children.
BASHIR ABDULRAHMAN ACCA
Executive Director
ACCA Bashir is the Executive Director of the firm. He holds a Second Class (Honors) Upper Division in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University and is a chartered accountant. Bashir has a background in investment banking and oil & gas trading. His investment banking experience covers equity capital raising where he participated in raising over $3 billion, public sector advisory,deal structuring and financial advisory.
Suraj B. Yakubu (Non-Executive Director)
SURAJJUDEEN B. YAKUBU is a Non-Executive Director of Credent Capital and Advisory Limited. He is a distinguished lawyer with almost 40 years’ experience and expertise in investment and joint venture syndication, contract negotiations, privatization advisories, capacity building.
He is an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria (LL. B), The Nigeria Law School Lagos (B.L), Institute of Administration, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria (LL.M), International Development Law Institute Rome (Cert. in Development Law) and Oxford University, Queens Mary College England (Cert. in Credit Risk Management & International Financial Law).
Suraj’ has served as a consultant and advisor on Legal and Regulatory Reform of State Owned Enterprise under the Technical Committee on Commercialization & Privatization (TCPC) and its successor, National Council on Privatization (NCP/BPE). Also, he was once Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, Consultant to the House of Representatives joint committee set on investigating activities of Banks in the Capital Market, Legal Consultant to United Nations Commission on Trade & Development (UNCTAD) on investment policy in Africa, and Legal Advisory to Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) on loan syndication, amongst others.
He is a member of the Nigeria Bar Association, International Bar Association, Institute of Directors of Nigeria, Nigeria Institute of Management, Institute of Management Consultant USA, International Federation of Training & Development Organization Geneva, International Society of Performance Improvement USA, Fellow & Council Member, Business Recovery & Insolvency Practitioners Association of Nigeria, FBR, International Association of Insolvency Practitioners.
