Prof. Kenneth Sola Adeyemi was born on 13th August 1949 in Oro-Ago, Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. He attended Igbomina Baptist Grammar School (now School of Agriculture, Bowen University), Isanlu-Isin, Kwara State, 1965-69. He was the best all-round student in the secondary school. He was also the Head Boy and Senior Prefect in 1969. He did his Higher School Certificate at the Government Secondary School, Ilorin from 1970 – 71 where he finished with the best HSC result in the then Northern States of Nigeria.
He proceeded to the University of Ibadan where he bagged a B.Sc. (Hons) Economics (1975). He attended the London School of Economics and the University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology where he obtained an M.Sc. in Operational Research, (1978) and, later Ph.D. in Management Science, (1983) respectively. He is an alumnus of several Ivy-League and world class institutions including Harvard Business School, Wharton School, Chicago Graduate School of Business, Michigan School of Business, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Cranfield University School of Management, Ashridge Graduate Management School, amongst others.
Prof. Adeyemi lectured at the universities of Jos and Ilorin for a cumulative period of fourteen years and rose to the position of Senior Lecturer before moving into the banking industry in August 1991.
In the banking Industry, he rose to the position of Executive Director in Union Bank of Nigeria Plc. While in that position, he held various responsibilities including Information Technology & Services, Information Technology & Operations, and Commercial Banking & Retail Banking. He was also a non-Executive Director in Union Homes Savings & Loans Plc, Union Capital Markets Ltd and Union Trustees Ltd. He retired from Union Bank in 2009 upon attainment of age 60 in accordance with the regulations in the industry.
Prof Adeyemi lectured for about 18 months in the Department of Business Administration, University of Lagos before moving on to Covenant University where he was appointed Professor of Operations Research & Business Development. He was the former Director and Deputy Dean, School of Business at Covenant University and also chaired the University’s Strategic Planning Committee, the Centre for Life Long Learning Programme and Covenant University Microfinance Bank.
He has held various positions of responsibility at the national level which includes President of The Nigerian Economic Society between 2009 and 2011, Member, National Economic Management Team (NEMT) during the same period, where he served as the Honorary Special Adviser on Economic Matters, to the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria. He also served as a member of the Vision20:2020 Implementation Committee and Member, Technical Committee on Nigeria’s Trade Policy. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Economic Society. He is currently Chairman, Governing Board, Kwara State College of Education, Oro and Chairman, First Heritage Microfinance Bank, Oro-Ago. He is also the current Head of Department of Business and Entrepreneurship, Kwara State University, Malete. He has published several articles in learned journals and chapters in books (local & foreign).
