Chidinma Lawanson
ICE Associate Consultant
Chidinma Lawanson has more than 25 years experience, spanning the commercial banking and development finance sector, with a deep commitment to promoting financial inclusion and tackling youth unemployment across sub-Saharan Africa.
Chidinma was the immediate past Country Director-Nigeria for the Mastercard Foundation, from 2020 to 2023. She oversaw the implementation of the Foundation’s Young Africa Works Strategy in Nigeria, unlocking fulfilling work and entrepreneurial opportunities through partner organizations, for more than 1 million youth (especially young women) in agriculture, creatives and digital economy sectors, embedding financial inclusion in its programs and she managed the public and private sector engagements within Nigeria for the Foundation.
As the CEO of Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access – EFInA, (an NGO, funded by the FCDO and the Gates Foundation), she was instrumental in expanding financial inclusion among financial service organisations via provision of innovative grants and cutting edge –
research. Chidinma has two decades of strategy and implementation experience with Diamond Bank Plc, Nigeria, where she held leadership
roles in business development; organisational strength and MSME products. She acted as a Financial Sector consultant across Africa, to the
International Finance Corporation (IFC, a World Bank Group); AfDB, Development Pathways Limited (UK); and Oxfam – Enterprise Development Centre’s SME Development Program.
Chidinma is a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow (a Fulbright Scholar). She has been an Independent Non-Executive Director on the Boards of Global Accelerex (CBN – licensed FinTech organization), also on the Advisory Board of Enterprise Development Centre of Pan Atlantic University and is currently on the Advisory Board of Hillside University of Science and Technology, Nigeria.
As a thought leader and public speaker, Chidinma has appeared at both international and local conferences. After a one year break in 2023 focused on family, Chidinma now provides expert consultancy for international development organisations such as BoP Innovation Centre of the Netherlands; 54 Collective of South Africa, and Global Alliance for Food & Nutrition (GAIN), with focus on access to finance, MSME – capacity building, agriculture and financial inclusion.