Former Director-General of the Security and Exci Commission Arunma Oteh has been elected the new chair of The Royal African Society.

Ms Oteh, previously the Treasurer and Vice President of the World Bank will be taking over from journalist and broadcaster, Zeinab Badawi.

Ms Oteh tweeted: “Delighted to join as Chair of @royafrisoc, an organisation that has served #Africa for 120 years.  I look forward to building on the great work of my predecessors @TheZeinabBadawi & @malloch_brown, Council colleagues and staff led by @NickWestcottRAS @destahaile @africaarguments” on Tuesday morning. 

The Royal African Society was founded in 1901, with its goals to promote relations between the United Kingdom and countries in Africa.

Ms Oteh, who is also a British citizen, will serve a renewable term of three years, and will lead the Council that sets the Society’s strategic direction for the achievement of its mission. She will also be responsible for maintaining the Society’s public profile and top level contacts in both the UK and Africa. 

Ms Oteh has been an Executive-in-Residence at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, since January 2019. Her research areas of focus include capital markets, economic development and financial technology.

She is a member of the London Stock Exchange Africa Advisory Group, and was Group Vice President and Group Treasurer, African Development Bank Group. 

She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BSc, First Class Honors from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.  Ms Oteh has also served on several boards and has received several awards notably Nigeria’s Officer of the Order of Niger (OON) National Honour. 

In 2020, She was named one of PowerList’s 2020 top 100 people of Black Heritage in the UK, and one of Africa’s 50 most influential African women by Forbes Africa in March.