Hamzat Adisa Subair was an accountant, co-founder, and first CEO of Nigeria’s first indigenous bank, the National Bank of Nigeria Ltd. Born in Olowogbowo district of Lagos Island. Subair was educated at Kings’ College in Lagos before proceeding to the United Kingdom in 1919 for a course in Commerce and Accountancy. Thereafter, he obtained a degree in banking in the United States. On his return to Nigeria in 1927, he worked with a member of the prominent Fagbemi Dawodu family which he belonged, and in 1933 parleyed with Dr. Akinola Maja and Chief T. Adedayo Doherty to start a bank. Adisa Subair, a pioneer in Nigeria’s accountancy profession was the first in the dynasty of chartered accountants which proceeded from him; Abodun and Hamzat Ayodele.
