Wema Bank Restates Early Financial Inclusion Push With Children’s Day MD/CEO Initiative

Reaffirming its commitment to early financial inclusion, Wema Bank Plc handed over its leadership reins to 10-year-old Chinmamanda Ozoakpata for Children’s Day.

The head girl at Redeemers Foundation Nursery and Primary School emerged after her one-minute video entry garnered over 50,000 views, making her the first female to hold the symbolic role.

Introduced in 2025, the Wema Bank One-Day MD/CEO challenge is an industry first initiative pioneered by Wema Bank to give children across Nigeria a platform to express their ambitions, tap into their unique potential, and get hands-on insight into the responsibility and success that their future careers hold.

Handing over the insignia of office to young Chinmamanda, the substantive MD/CEO of Wema Bank, Moruf Oseni shed light on the Bank’s inspiration behind the launch of the One-Day MD/CEO initiative.

According to him, at our core is a deep-seated drive for inspiring children and showing them that they have what it takes to fulfil their ambition. For this reason, we launched the One-Day MD/CEO initiative in 2025, giving children the opportunity to step into the demanding yet inspiring role of MD/CEO at one of Nigeria’s longest standing institutions, Wema Bank. The impact has been phenomenal and this year, we decided to open up that opportunity to another child.

“It is with great pleasure that I have with me here, 10-year-old Chimamanda Ozoakpata, this year’s record-breaking leader. Today, I am handing over the reins of leadership to Chimamanda, who will become the MD/CEO of Wema Bank for today, in celebration of Children’s Day.”

Accepting the mantle of leadership, Chinmamanda extended her gratitude to Wema Bank for believing in her and giving her this unique opportunity.

Promising to make the Bank proud, she said, “thank you, Sir, for trusting me with this great opportunity, for always looking out for the children, and for making our success a priority at Wema Bank. I am proud to be a part of the Wema Bank family, not just because of the honour bestowed on me today but also because Wema Bank has shown how committed it is to supporting our parents and empowering children like me with the tools and guidance that we need to become financially smart.

“Today, I have the honour of being the one-day MD/CEO of Nigeria’s oldest indigenous and most innovative bank, Wema Bank plc. This is just one of the many ways that Wema Bank celebrates Children’s day”.

As her first act in office, Chinmamanda signed off on three new rewards for children and teens. These rewards include Birthday Cash Gifts of N5,000 and N10,000 each for children turning five and 10 years respectively between May 25, 2026 and May 2027; N100,000 reward for the top 100 students in the National Common Entrance Exam starting next month; and the launch of the Evolve school tour-STEM challenge for children and teens.