For Morufudeen Busari, financial management isn’t just about balancing ledger books—it is an engine for regional growth. Currently serving as Cluster Chief Financial Officer for West Africa at Ipsos, he oversees the financial framework of a premier insights and market-research firm.
Drawing from a rich professional background rooted in audit practice and banking risk control, Busari bridges the gap between deep technical governance and proactive business partnership across West Africa’s most dynamic markets.
Building a Finance Organisation that Holds
At Ipsos, Busari’s mandate is to keep a healthy and efficient finance organisation across West Africa and to maintain a proper set of accounts that Europe can trust. He treats accuracy as a discipline rather than a slogan: get the basics right, then build on them. That means financial statements that stand up to scrutiny, budgets that are owned rather than filed, and a particular watch on Genex and payroll, the lines where operational reality meets the profit-and-loss account.
He works as a business partner to the Cluster Manager, not as a scorekeeper after the fact. Revenue and operating-profit targets are shared obligations. He defines strategy from a clear reading of client needs, then folds daily operations into that strategy so the department improves continuously rather than in bursts. Influence, in his practice, comes from argument and evidence.
Leading People as Carefully as Numbers
Busari sets responsibilities, objectives and expectations, then gives his team room to reach the result, with an open door when the path is unclear. He promotes team achievements in public, gives regular and constructive feedback, and takes the lead when clients, time or cost become difficult. Mistakes are managed, not hidden. Success is recognised. The leadership standard he applies to himself is the same one he asks of others: take responsibility for the initiative, accept the risk, and lead for the outcome.
A Career Forged in Control and Counsel
Before the cluster role, he was Chief Finance Officer for Ipsos in Nigeria, implementing group strategy, policies and systems, securing funding for ongoing and project commitments, tightening cash management toward free-cash-flow targets, and holding cost under firm control. He counselled the Managing Director and the local management committee, and kept effective ties with banks, auditors and tax authorities.
Earlier, at Stanbic IBTC, he steered financial control for property and premises and for personal-banking channels, from budget collation and foreign-exchange compliance to vendor evaluation and the asset register. At Media24 Nigeria he ran the finance division for a South African parent. Years in internal audit at Metropolitan Bank, NBM Bank and NSL Lotteries, and in public practice at Ibikunle Amosun & Co. and HLB Z.O. Ososanya & Co., gave him the investigator’s eye he still brings to management reporting.
TheCFO Magazine’s CFO of the Week recognizes exceptional Chief Financial Officers across the globe, celebrating their outstanding leadership, impactful achievements, innovative solutions, extensive industry expertise, and invaluable contributions to their organizations.
