Sonnie Babatunde Ayere, Founder/CEO, DLM Capital Group

The Founder and Group CEO of DLM Capital Group, Sonnie Babatunde Ayere, has received a lifetime achievement award from The International Investor. This award is intended exclusively for business executives who have achieved a notable accomplishment that is currently benefitting the community and will do so for many years to come.

Mr. Ayere has been recognized for his firm understanding of macroeconomic fundamentals and more than 30 years of solid expertise in Corporate and Structured Finance, Banking, and Asset Management.

Mr. Ayere has worked with HSBC, NatWest Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, Bank of Montreal Nesbitt Burns in London, and the International Finance Corporation.

He has consulted on and negotiated challenging mandates for several enterprises and governments in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mr. Ayere left United Capital Group, formerly known as UBA Global Markets Ltd, as its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer in 2009 to start Dunn Loren Merrifield (now known as DLM Capital Group).

Mr. Ayere has applied his expertise in areas of national service to the Federal Government of Nigeria, prior to setting up DLM Capital Group. Despite external considerations, Sonnie Ayere pioneered IFC’s involvement in and championed the establishment of the Nigerian sovereign bond market in 2004 and was the primary IFC counsel to the Nigerian Debt Management Office on market development.

It effectively launched in 2006 with the first issuance calendar and has since been a significant source of liquidity in the financial sector, thereby expanding the size of the capital market. The Financial Market Dealers Quote (FMDQ) now values Nigeria’s domestic bond market at N28.94 trillion as of July 15, 2022.

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala then nominated him as task manager for the establishment of the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company Plc (NMRC), and he was named its first managing director. He was also a member of the Inaugural Nigerian Bond Steering Committee set up by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in 2006.

DLM Capital was also named Best Development Investment Bank 2023 and Best Comprehensive Investment Firm 2023 by Investor Awards.

Mr. Ayere’s 14-year leadership of DLM Capital Group has remained focused on driving the development of the Nigerian economy by focusing expertise on key sectors such as consumer credit, agriculture, microfinance, and education, in line with our developmental mandate, to help reduce poverty, improve living conditions for Africans, and mobilize resources for the continent’s economic and social development.

DLM Capital Group specializes in developing financing strategies and solutions for the Nigerian economy’s microfinance banks, asset financing, agricultural, infrastructure, electricity, energy, oil & gas, and mining sectors. DLM Capital Group is widely acknowledged as a market leader

in the Nigerian capital market for providing best-in-class deal structuring and execution of advice and capital raising services.