Ibukun Awosika: Nigeria’s most celebrated female chairperson

Ibukun Awosika is an African entrepreneur, author, international leader, global culture shaper and pastor. She is the Chairman and Founder of The Chair Centre Group, a leading furniture and security systems provider in Nigeria.

Born in Ibadan on 24 December 1962, Ibukunoluwa Abiodun Awosika originally dreamt of designing buildings, but when family finances ruled out architecture school she studied Chemistry at Obafemi Awolowo University, graduating at 20. Her national-service year at Akintola Williams & Co (today’s Deloitte) gave her a first taste of balance-sheets, yet it was a “small-room” furniture start-up she launched with a ₦100,000 family loan in 1989 that would rewrite her story.

Building “The Chair Centre” one ergonomic seat at a time
Renamed The Chair Centre Group, the company moved from a single Lagos workshop into security-printing safes, office fit-out and nationwide distribution. By insisting on ISO certification and “delivery before decoration”, Awosika won contracts from Shell, Citibank and, eventually, every major Nigerian lender an early credibility badge that would propel her into the very boardrooms she once supplied.

In 2016 she became the first woman ever appointed Chairperson of First Bank of Nigeria in the bank’s 130-year history. The move was more than symbolism: within her first eighteen months the institution posted its cleanest audit in a decade and was re-admitted to the MSCI frontier-market index after previous governance scares.

She is indeed an inspiration to many women across the globe. Listen to her describe the leadership mindset behind that turnaround on the IESE “Real Leadership” podcast. For the full podcast episode (audio) Click here. Ibukunoluwa Abiodun Awosika never stopped studying. Her executive certificates now read like a world tour: Lagos Business School, IESE (Spain), Wharton, CEIBS (China) and Harvard, a deliberate layering of global governance lenses onto local hustle.

Also, in 2001 she co-founded WIMBIZ (Women in Business, Management & Public Service), has mentored 15,000+ women and still holds a monthly “open Saturday” for start-ups. She also runs the Ibukun Awosika Leadership Academy; catch the latest cohort announcements on its official page. As a devout Christian, she executive-produced the faith-based movie God Calling and played herself in Netflix’s Citation. Universities on four continents have awarded her honorary doctorates for contributions to enterprise and gender parity.

”Dreams are free, but the journey isn’t. Pay the price ethically, consistently and always pull someone else up while you climb”
Ibukun Awosika

Awards shelf

• 2020 Forbes Woman Africa Chairperson Award
• Beta Gamma Sigma Business Achievement Award
• International Women Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC) laureate
• Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON)
• 2025 “Woman of Steel / Female Trailblazer” Nominee – MOI Awards

From a makeshift carpentry shed to the commanding heights of African finance, Ibukun Awosika’s journey is a living syllabus on resilience, governance and lifting as you rise, proof that the glass ceiling stays broken only when more feet walk on it.