Fola Laoye

Fola Laoye

Fola Laoye is Chief Executive Officer at Health Markets Africa, a company providing bespoke business and financial advisory services to both public and private sector healthcare clients across Africa. She is the first female chairperson of the Board of First Securities Discount House (FSDH), a financial advisory firm and was previously Director for West Africa investments at the Investment Fund for Health in Africa (IFHA).

Fola Laoye has spent most of her career in the health sector, contributing to the healthcare space by utilizing her skills to effectively carry out a broad range of duties which includes setting up health insurance, building clinics and hospitals as well as healthcare management. Knowing that the healthcare sector in Nigeria and Africa is underserved, Fola Laoye was driven to take up the challenge of bridging the gap in the healthcare sector by providing quality healthcare services in Nigeria and Africa.

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Asides her operational experience in healthcare, Fola has been vested with several financial responsibilities, primarily through her board positions across various sectors of the economy such as health and life insurance, pensions and recently, assets and wealth management.

Fola holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from the University of Lagos and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.  She qualified as an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales in 1995 and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria in 1997. 

Fola has over 25 years’ experience charting the growth of several businesses within and out of Nigeria. At Hygeia, she led the evolution of the Lagoon Hospital into a multi-site and multi-speciality strategy, including the growth of Acute Specialties and Critical Care services with a 100% increase in bed capacity. She was also instrumental to the growth in patient footfalls and revenue as well as contributed significantly to driving operations up to being the first hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa to achieve the Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation. Additionally, Fola was significant in driving Hygeia Community Health Care (HCHC) in January 2007, a community health insurance program focused on both rural and urban areas.

Fola has built an extensive network consisting of top industry players, largely through her membership positions on different boards. She is a member of the Board of Results for Development, Washington DC, USA; and Hygeia Group Nigeria, promoters of Hygeia HMO and Lagoon Hospital where she worked in various leadership capacities for over 18 years, including being CEO from 2002 to 2012 and Chairperson, 2012 to 2015. She also holds board membership positions at EchoScan Diagnostics, Lifebank Technologies, PAL Pensions, Old Mutual Life Assurance Limited and Harvard Business School’s Healthcare Initiative. She is a trustee of the Harvard Business School Alumni in Nigeria and a member of the Young Presidents Organization, Lagos Chapter.

In recognition of her exceptional leadership qualities, Fola Laoye was awarded the Harvard Business School Africa ‘Business Club Leadership Excellence Award’ in 2013. She is a multicultural leader who champions diversity and inclusion in the workplace.