By OLASUNKANMI AKONI

Lagos — Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, forwarded the name of Director-General of the state’s Office of Public – Private Partnerships, PPP, Mr. Ayodeji Gbeleyi, to the state House of Assembly as nominee to replace Mr. Tokunbo Abiru, who recently resigned from the state’s cabinet as Commissioner for Finance.

According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Mr. Hakeem Bello, the nomination was, however, subject to clearance by the State House of Assembly after consideration.

Gbeleyi also doubles as the Special Adviser to the Governor on PPP, the agency driving the Government-to-Business (G2B) collaboration policy thrust for the acceleration of infrastructure delivery towards the actualisation of the vision of making Lagos Africa’s model megacity.

A Fellow of the Chartered Accountants of Nigeria,FCA, Gbeleyi was, prior to his current role as Director-General and Special Adviser on PPP, a co-partner with African Advisors, a consultancy boutique with focus on Telecoms, Infrastructure and PPP Advisory Services.

With over a decade of distinguished banking career in senior positions of cross-functional responsibilities, Ayo Gbeleyi was the pioneer and only Chief Treasury Officer, Celtel Nigeria Limited, who led the company’s USD 1.1 billion Project Finance that won the Euromoney’s Project Finance Magazine’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa,EMEA, Telecoms Deal of the Year 2005,