Leadership
Bello Maccido
Board Member
Bello Maccido
Chairman of the Board
His Highness Muhammad Sanusi, CON
Chairman of the Board
From working as a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University, where he taught Economics, he joined the banking industry in 1985, and by January 2009 had risen to General Manager and Group Managing Director of First Bank of Nigeria PLC, Nigeria’s oldest and biggest bank. Mallam Sanusi has been conferred with a National Award of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and has also been awarded the “Global Central Bank Governor for 2010” by The Banker Magazine, a publication of the Financial Times.
He was also voted Central Bank Governor of the Year for Sub-Saharan Africa 2009 (an award he won again in 2010) by Emerging Markets, a publication of Euromoney Institutional Investors. In 2011, Mr. Sanusi was named Forbes Africa Person of the Year for 2011. He was also listed by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
His Highness Muhammad Sanusi, CON
Bala Yunusa
Board Member
Also, he won a grant from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa to implement a Soil Health Programme in Northern Nigeria targeting 30,000 smallholder farmers. Moreover, he led the scaling up of 31 of the UNDP’s Millennium Villages to cover Saulawa Districts with about 29,000 vulnerable people and facilitated the adoption of the Millennium Villages model at the national level, covering 113 Local Governments with approximately 21 million people.
Prior to this, he worked in the Nigerian banking sub-sector for six years (2001-2007) as a Relationship Manager and Branch Head with Guaranty Trust Bank. He holds Msc. in Development Finance from The University of Manchester and a Ph.D degree from the same institution.
Bala Yunusa
Board Director
Kola Masha
Managing Director
Kola Masha
Managing Director
Lola Masha
Deputy Managing Director
These platforms are the leading destination for buying and selling used goods and services in 30 countries, and the #1 mobile app in its category in more than 20 markets. Globally ~ 11 million items are exchanged through its platforms every single month.
Prior to joining OLX, Lola spent 4 years at Google leading various Product Partnerships efforts across EMEA and Emerging Markets. Lola was one of the earliest Googlers in Sub-Saharan Africa when the technology company began its operations in the region.
Lola shaped the regional strategy, executed on several core initiatives and led business development efforts with key SSA partners including the telcos, OEMs, digital content providers and local entrepreneurs. Lola brings significant leadership experience in business development, entrepreneurship, operational transformation and product development across several industries including technology and financial services.
In addition to Africa, Lola has substantial international working experience in North America, Europe, and Asia. She also worked in the Chicago office of McKinsey & Company, where she spent time advising senior executives on extensive strategic management topics. Lola holds a Doctorate degree in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Virginia. She is happily married with two kids.
Lola Masha
Director
Michael Jainzik
Board Director
Prior to his role as independent director in Babban Gona, Michael has served as a non-executive director in Access Bank Azerbaijan (2006-2011, Chairman), Belarusian Bank for Small Business (2008-2011), Rural Impulse Fund II Luxemburg (2010-2011) and AB Bank Zambia (2011-2016).
Michael has studied Economics and Management at the Universities of Lüneburg and Witten/Herdecke (Germany) and ETEA – Universidad Loyola in Córdoba (Spain) and holds a Master Degree in Economics and Management. He is currently based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Michael Jainzik
Board Director
Orin Hasson
Board Observer Gates Foundation
Orin Hasson is the representative from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) on the Board of Directors at Babban Gona. At BMGF, he is a Program Officer on the agricultural development team and he manages grants which are focused on linking smallholder farmer members to markets. Orin has lived in Israel, the UK, Afghanistan and Turkey, and has designed and implemented development programs on behalf of USAID, DfID, EBRD and the World Bank. He holds an MA in Conflict, Security and Development from the War Department of King’s College London as well as an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Orin Hasson
Board Observer Gates Foundation
Frank Altman
Board Director
Frank Altman is the founder and first CEO of Community Reinvestment Fund, USA. As CRF’s founder, Altman pioneered the development of a secondary market for community and economic development loans. Since 1988, under Altman’s leadership and in partnership with a network of more than 200 local community partners, CRF has funded more than $3.5 billion in loans to job-creating small businesses, non-profits, charter schools and affordable housing projects in 50 states plus the District of Columbia and more than 1,000 communities across the United States.
Altman helped design the creation of the federal New Markets Tax Credit to encourage private investment in low-income communities and is a founding member and first President of the New Markets Tax Credit Coalition. He is also a member of the Center for Community Development Investors at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and an advisor to the Social Innovation Initiative at Brown University and the Center for Impact Finance at the University of New Hampshire. His work has been featured in Inc. Magazine, where he was named one of its Entrepreneurs of the Year, and he received Fast Company’s Social Capitalist award.
Altman has been awarded the Economic Development Innovation Award from GIS Planning Inc. and fDi Intelligence for his contribution to the field of economic development. Altman is a Senior Fellow at Ashoka, the world-wide network of social entrepreneurs and a founding member of Kindred.
More recently, in September 2023, Altman authored a book published by Forbes and titled “A New Capitalism: Creating A Just Economy That Works For All.”It is available in physical and online book stores and on Audible.
Frank Altman
Board Director
