Otunba Michael Olasubomi Balogun (CON)
Otunba Michael Olasubomi Olayiwola Oladimeji Olaonipekun Balogun, born 9th March 1934, at Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State.
The Otunba had his secondary education at Igbobi College, Yaba, Lagos where he passed out with the Cambridge School Certificate in Grade One in 1952. For a year, he was a Secondary School teacher before proceeding to the London School of Economics (LSE) to read Law in 1956, having passed with distinctions – three subjects at the GCE Advanced Level as one of the pioneer-students of the Nigerian College of Arts, Science & Technology, Ibadan.
He graduated from LSE with Second Class Honours Degree in June 1959 and was called to the English Bar in December 1959. Under the sponsorship of the then Western Regional Government, he was the first Nigerian to receive special training in Legal Drafting in Whitehall and the City of London with particular specialisation in financial legislation, instruments and agreements.
He served as a Crown Counsel in the Ministry of Justice of the then Western Nigeria and subsequently as Assistant Parliamentary Counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice in Lagos.
For nine years, between 1966 and 1975, he was the first Principal Counsel and Company Secretary to the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB). He received extensive training from leading stockbrokers, investment banks and merchant banks in London and New York.
In 1973, he was appointed the Director of Operations of ICON Securities Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of NIDB. He was Executive Director, ICON Limited (Merchant Bankers).
He resigned in December 1977 to set up his own company, City Securities Limited, which was the first institution in Nigeria to combine Issuing House and Stockbroking businesses under one roof. In 1982, he founded the First City Merchant Bank (FCMB). After 18 years of unbroken success as a merchant bank, FCMB widened its doors to retail customers in January 2001 and adopted universal banking. The bank has since changed its name to First City Monument Bank and is one of the leading post-consolidation banks in Nigeria today
