Emeka Osuji

Professor Osuji attended Awo-Omamma Comprehensive Secondary School where he was the Senior Prefect and best-graduating student, obtaining Division One in the June 1976 West African School Certificate Examinations. In November of the same year, he sat for the Advanced Level GCE and passed three papers. This gave him Direct Entry admission into the University of Lagos, where he trained as an economist and obtained the B.Sc. (Econs) (2.1), M.Sc. (Econs) and Ph.D. (Econs) degrees. During his National Youth Service at Zungeru College of Advanced Studies in Bida, he was head of the Economics Department.

He earned a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Lagos. He was called to the Nigerian Bar as a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria after graduating (BL) from the Nigerian Law School. He is an alumnus of both the Lagos Business School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Prof Osuji is the President of the Senior Management Programme (SMP) 22 Class of Lagos Business School. He also studied Negotiation and Competitive Decision Making at Harvard Business School and graduated from the Banking School of Citibank in New York. Additionally, he qualified as a Commodity Broker at the Abuja Commodity Exchange.

Professor Osuji was a banker for nearly three decades and held various senior leadership positions in industry and government. He began his career as a journalist with Vanguard Newspapers, where he was Deputy Business Editor before moving to the banking industry. He was at different times Head of Research and Communications at First City Monument Bank (FCMB) and International Merchant Bank (IMB) and later Head of Equity Investment in the Corporate Finance Division of IMB.

Prof Osuji was seconded to the Presidency as Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr Chu Okongwu, PhD (Harvard), KBE. He was later moved to the ministries of Cabinet Affairs in the Presidency and Budget and Planning. He served as Coordinator of the high-powered Federal Government Delegation to Malaysia and Indonesia, and participated in several committees that worked on the reform of the Nigerian financial system in the 1990s that resulted in the creation of several institutions and systems like the Value Added Tax, the Peoples Bank, community and mortgage banks, regulated finance companies, monetisation of fringe benefits of civil servants, and other cost-saving policies. He was Secretary to the Nigeria-Southern Africa Development Consortium and a member of the Nigerian delegation that visited Nelson Mandela, the ANC and Thebe Corporation just before he was elected president. 

Prof Osuji left IMB and with some of his friends, founded the Leverage Group, including a finance company, a mortgage bank and a trading firm, where he was chief executive for nearly a decade before he returned to the banking sector as the Special Adviser to the Founder and Executive Chairman of Diamond Bank. Prof Osuji was the Divisional Head of Commercial Banking in various parts of the country, including the South-South, the South-East, and the entire Northern Nigeria Division at Diamond Bank, and later the Managing Director of its multibillion-naira pension custodian.

He was a member of the Financial System Strategy Sub-Committee of Vision 2020, pioneer Chairman, of the Imo State Economic Summit Group, founding director of Imo State Investment Promotion Agency; former director of Imo State Privatisation and Investment Bureau, former director of FSDH Discount House (Now FSDH Merchant Bank). Prof Osuji is a prominent Council Member of the Nigerian Economic Society, and Chairman of the Central Working Committee of the 2024 Annual Conference of the Society, which saw the largest number of delegates and papers presented in the history of the Nigerian Economic Society; member, Editorial Committee, 6th NESG Summit, 1999; Council Member of the Institute of Directors, IOD Nigeria, and Chairman of its Membership Committee.

Prof Osuji is a pioneer staff of the School of Management and Social Sciences of Pan-Atlantic University and played a central role in attracting and welcoming the pioneer class of students to the university. Thereafter, he led the advocacy for admissions and regularly gave the Welcome Speech to visiting secondary school students, on the superiority of a Pan-Atlantic University degree. As a typical pioneer, he was involved in practically everything, including negotiating with caterpillar operators on when to work around classrooms to protect the students from the noise. He was the first chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, the first Law Lecturer in Business Law, and occasionally provided the university with pro bono legal drafting and advisory services. Prof. Osuji received the Long Service Award for 10 years of meritorious service in 2024.

He was the founding Head of the Department of Economics at Pan-Atlantic University and continued in that role long after its accreditation by the National Universities Commission. Under his leadership, the first-ever Monthly Departmental Research Seminar in the University was established in the Department of Economics.

He has published extensively in learned journals on Rural Finance, Entrepreneurship, and the Nano, Small, and Medium Enterprise (NMSME) sector, with over thirty peer-reviewed publications in top journals and books.  Professor Osuji has published extensively on the SME sector in newspapers and magazines, including the Economist Magazine.  His weekly column in BusinessDay Newspaper, Small Business Handbook, has over 150 articles that may be accessed by clicking Emeka Osuji Author at BusinessDay.  Prof Osuji’s passion for teaching and mentoring the youth, and his extensive industry and public service experience and contacts have enabled him to deepen his research and teaching, bringing students closer to the industry.

A Chartered Management Consultant, he holds the Fellowships of the Chartered Institute of Directors (IOD), the Institute of Management Consultants, and the Association of Investment Advisers of Nigeria.

Prof Osuji is a Catholic Christian, baptised Linus and native-named Onyewuchibeya. He is an Exemplified Knight and Chevalier of the Knights of St John International. He is a Life Member of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s’ Fellowship International of which he was First Vice President of the Atlantic Chapter; a Life Member of the Lagos Business School Alumni Association, a member of the Nigerian Bar Association, the African Bar Association and Ikoyi Club, 1938.

Prof Emeka Osuji is married to Lady Emily Chidinma Osuji, FCIB, FNIM (Nwanyikachibeyanma) and they have five adorable children.