Renowned corporate lawyer and philanthropist, Chris Oladipo Ogunbanjo, has died aged 99. Ogunbanjo, who was a few months away from celebrating his 100th birthday, was a businessman and philanthropist whose legal firm played a major role in the 1972/77 Indigenisation policy.
Chief Ogunbanjo employed his profession, law, as a veritable instrument of change in Nigeria’s corporate and management practice.

His familiarity with corporate law led him to be a significant shareholder in various Nigerian companies, such as West
African Batteries, Metal Box Toyo, Union Securities, 3M Nigeria, ABB Nigeria, Roche Nigeria and Chemical and Allied
Products Ltd, following the implementation of the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Decree, 1972 (amended) in 1977.

Chief Ogunbanjo established a reputation for promoting and nurturing industrial ventures. He was an early advocate
of domiciliary accounts in Nigeria, which later came to existence through the promulgation of the Foreign Currency Decree 18 of 1985. In the late 1960s, he was among the group of businessmen who supported local equity participation in foreign firms operating in Nigeria.

As a business leader in Nigeria, he was an articulate spokesman for the organised private sector and had over the years displayed informed legal opinion in his various comments on the direction of the Nigerian economy.
Ogunbanjo was born to the family of Daniel Ajayi Ogunbanjo, a catechist from Erunwon, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State on December 12, 1923.