Nigerians who are company owners or big time investors must have heard about Ike Chioke. He is one of Nigeria’s best and brightest investment banker. In this post, we’ll be writing about the biography of Ike Chioke, Managing Director (West Africa) of Afrinvest.
It is pertinent you read this post carefully to get to know this great personality who rose from scratch, moving from Engineering field to that of Finance. Yet, he made a name for himself.
Biography of Ike Chioke, Managing Director (West Africa) of Afrinvest
Ike Chioke was born in Enugu State in the 1960s. He was born into the family of Igwe Alexander Ene Chioke and Ukamaka Chioke. The family was a middle-class family, his father a top civil servant of Enugu State, and his mother, a major trader at Ogbete Main Market, Enugu. According to him, the family lived by one of the best standards in those days.
He attended Ekulu Primary School and St. Patrick’s Primary School all in Enugu. After finishing from primary school, he proceeded to the Federal Government College, Jos, for his secondary school education, where he wrote his senior secondary school certificate examination.
Ike Chioke applied to study Civil Engineering at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He got admitted, and graduated with a First Class Degree Certificate. Excelling in his studies, he had hoped for the best in his career.
His Civil Engineering career started during his National Youth Service when he was posted to fix the erosion problem at Ankpa. Mr. Chioke asserts that it is his achievement and experience controlling the erosion that helped him in his career. It is with this that he got Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University, UK.
Before getting to get scholarship, he tried finding jobs in Nigeria. Most of the jobs had superiors who were scared of his qualifications, and therefore, they overlooked him. He decided to work in the finance sector, at Arthur Andersen, the Tax Department.
Ike Chioke left the job for his master’s degree certificate studies at Oxford University where he studied Management. As a Rhodes scholar, he had also hoped for the best. The Rhodes Scholarship is a very pretigious scholarship that only a few and best of students can win.
After graduation, he realized he cannot work in the UK. He decided to search for jobs in the US. There, he found it difficult to secure jobs as well. Mr. Chioke had to resort to cold-calling firm CEOs in the financial sector to get a job placement since most of his applications were rejected. This turned to be a master stroke as he got a good job at First Year Analyst at Goldman Sachs.
Professional Career and Afrinvest
Ike Chioke would go on to work at Salmon Smith Barng Inc., and Citi Group, London, before settling with Afrinvest. He worked with Afrinvest in the UK before he was redeployed to Nigeria to oversee the business interests and set it up in the West Africa region. At the point of Afrinvest’s entry into Nigeria and the West African market, investment banking was almost non-existent.
He was appointed as the Managing Director while Godwin Obaseki was appointed as the Chairman. They worked together in offering investment, merger, and acquisition advice to company owners and top executives. It was going fine until the financial crisis of 2008, and the firm went bankrupt.
Through the help of GTB chairman at that time, Ike Chioke was able to pull through the difficulties and challenges. He has gone on to become one of the best and most sought after investment banker in Nigeria. He sits on several companies’ and governments’ boards.
Ike Chioke is the Head of Enugu State Economic Advisory Committee. He was also recently appointed as the Head of Enugu State Transition Committee and Economic Planning in 2023. He is a member of company and institutions boards such as American University of Nigeria, ServiPower, and some other companies.
He shuttles between Lagos, where he works, and Enugu, his home city, where he is involved in the economic planning of his state. He is happily married with children
What is the Net Worth of Ike Chioke?
There is no formal statement or account of Ike Chioke’s net worth. They can only be estimated. Ike Chioke assets and all are worth around $8 million.