Assistant Vice President and Head, Strategy and Policy
Development Bank of Nigeria
Jeremy Dan-Okayi is an Assistant Vice President and the Head, Strategy & Policy at Development Bank of Jeremy Dan-Okayi is a development finance and climate strategy leader with over 17 years of cross-sector experience spanning commercial banking, management consulting, and development finance. He serves as AVP and Head of Strategy & Policy at the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) — Nigeria’s foremost wholesale development finance institution where he architects the Bank’s corporate strategy, drives institutional performance, and leads Nigeria’s most consequential financial inclusion initiatives. Jeremy is one of the principal architect behind FINCLUDE — a landmark $500 million World Bank-funded facility designed to democratise access to finance for underserved MSMEs, women-owned enterprises, youth-led businesses, and start-ups across Nigeria’s most financially excluded communities. Under his strategic leadership, DBN has catalysed over ₦1 trillion in MSME lending, supported the creation of more than 1.2 million jobs, and driven 150%+ growth in partner financial institutions’ SME portfolios with 27% of beneficiaries being youth-led enterprises and 67% being women-owned businesses. A globally recognised leader in green finance, Jeremy spearheaded DBN’s historic accreditation to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) as Nigeria’s first Direct Access Entity (DAE) — a landmark milestone that unlocked Nigeria’s direct access to global climate capital. He secured a $950,000 GCF Readiness Grant and a CIF preparatory grant of $50,000 to build Nigeria’s climate finance origination architecture, enabling the country’s DFI ecosystem to independently design and submit GCF-aligned investment proposals. Beyond institutional roles, Jeremy is the Convener of Youth Backed by God (YBG) and the Kingdom Business Summit (KBS) — platforms dedicated to raising purpose-driven young leaders and equipping entrepreneurs to build values-anchored, impactful enterprises. He has represented Nigeria at COP26 through COP30, coauthored policy publications on ESG and climate finance, and serves on the Sustainability Sounding Board of the Montréal Group which is a global network of SME-focused development banks. Jeremy holds a B. Sc in Computer Science from Covenant University, an MSc in Information Systems Management from the University of Liverpool. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, a Certified Green & Sustainable Finance Professional (GSFP), Chartered Banker Institute, UK. He also holds an Advanced Certificate in Development Finance from the Association of African Development Finance Institutions (AADFI).
