Fola Ogunkola
Fola Ogunkola
Category - Finance
This chartered accountant and tax practitioner is a political and grassroots community activist who has committed thousands of hours into community projects over the years. He is a 1986 accountancy graduate of Ogun State Polytechnic, Nigeria with a Masters Degree in Legal Studies from the Lagos State University. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, Institute of Financial Accountants UK and Federation of Tax Advisers UK. He was for six years an assessor in Financial Accounting, Financial Management and Taxation of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria professional examinations.
He worked briefly as Accountant of Manifold Nigeria Ltd, and thereafter proceeded to have his professional training with KPMG Nigeria and had work experiences in both the private and public sectors of the economy. While in KPMG, he was reputed to have successfully led many big conglomerates companies in Nigeria before the Education Tax Investigation conducted by the Fraud Investigation Unit of the Interpol. His final position in KPMG was Group Head – Tax Audit and Investigation. He was later head-hunted for a Senior Manager position in the United Bank for Africa.
His service to his community and England includes sitting as a board member and director of The NFTMO Terry Edis Trust, National Federation of Tenants Management Organization, Leathermarket JMB – Southwark largest Tenant Management Organisation (TMO) and the first self-financing TMO in England.
He is the chairperson at Decima Street TRA, delegate to North Area Borough & Bankside Housing Forum and also a member of the Chaucer Ward panel of the CSNT. He has bagged various honors and awards for voluntary service to his community from the Mayor of Southwark (2008) and Mayor of London (2012). He was invited to celebrate the black history month at 10 Dowing Street with the Prime Minister in 2008.
He joined the Labour Party in 2004 and rose up to the position of Vice Chair – Membership in 2006. In 2013, he was shortlisted for selection as 2014 Council election candidate in five different wards namely East Walworth, South Bermondsey, Cathedrals, Rotherhithe and Newington. He politely turned down this offer and joined hands with Prem Goyal OBE JP to form the All Peoples Party – a political party fighting for equality at the top and on 6th October 2013, he declare his candidacy to stand as Parliamentary Candidate for the Bermondsey and Old Southwark constituency at the forthcoming Parliamentary election in 2015.
Fola Ogunkola still practices accountancy and is the Principal Partner at First Genesis Consulting based in Central London and Fola Ogunkola & Co (Chartered Accountants).