For Ambassador Opunimi “Nimi” Akinkugbe, the conversation around money began long before she became known for financial education. It was shaped by a childhood spent between Nigeria and East Africa, and later by a career that would take her from banking and wealth management into entrepreneurship, public education and diplomacy.
Born in Port Harcourt and raised in Lagos until the age of seven, Akinkugbe later moved with her family to Tanzania and Kenya. The experience gave her an early exposure to different cultures and ways of seeing the world, an international outlook that would eventually become part of her professional life.
For 23 years, she worked in banking, rising through wealth management roles at Stanbic IBTC and Barclays. Working closely with clients managing significant financial resources gave her a practical understanding of an important distinction: earning money is one thing; knowing how to manage, protect and grow it is another.
That distinction eventually became central to her own work.
After more than two decades in banking, Akinkugbe decided she wanted greater flexibility and more time for the people and things she valued. Leaving a successful corporate career meant stepping away from a familiar path, but it did not mean abandoning the experience she had accumulated. Instead, she turned it into something new.
One of the most unexpected expressions of that transition was Bestman Games.
The idea grew partly from her childhood memories of playing board games, particularly Monopoly, but also from recognising an opportunity to make those games more relevant to African audiences. In 2012, she introduced the City of Lagos Edition of Monopoly, bringing the city’s landmarks, streets and identity into a game that had traditionally reflected other parts of the world.
For Akinkugbe, the appeal went beyond nostalgia. She saw games as a way to introduce ideas about money, property, decision-making and even civic responsibility in a format that could engage families and young people.
The business would later expand into other editions and digital formats, while economic pressures such as inflation and currency devaluation forced the company to rethink how it manufactured and developed its products.
That experience reinforced another part of Akinkugbe’s philosophy: that changing circumstances do not necessarily mean abandoning an idea. Sometimes they require finding a different way to make it work. The same thinking has shaped her approach to financial education.
Through Money Matters with Nimi, her book The A–Z of Personal Finance, speaking engagements and media platforms, Akinkugbe has spent years making conversations around saving, budgeting, investing and financial planning more accessible.
For her, financial wellbeing is not simply about how much someone earns. It is also about what happens to that income afterwards — whether it is planned for, protected, invested and used to create greater options for the future. That message carries particular weight when she speaks to women.
Akinkugbe has argued that women need more than an income; they need financial knowledge and meaningful involvement in decisions that affect their futures. Having one’s own money, she has said, can be empowering because it provides a measure of independence when circumstances change.
But financial agency, in her view, does not mean having to do everything alone. Her advice around relationships also emphasises communication, shared goals and clarity around money. The important thing is that women understand their financial position and have a voice in the decisions that shape their lives.
It is a philosophy that also challenges the pressure to measure success through visible consumption.
Akinkugbe’s approach emphasises the less visible choices: planning before spending, resisting financial peer pressure, diversifying, preparing for unexpected events and making sure today’s income is creating options for tomorrow.
Her own career reflects that same willingness to think beyond a single definition of success.
Banking became the foundation for her work in financial education. Childhood memories became the inspiration for an entrepreneurial venture. Her international upbringing and professional experience later informed another chapter when she was appointed Nigeria’s first female ambassador to Greece in 2021.
Even music has remained part of the picture. Akinkugbe began playing the piano as a child, later earned a piano teaching diploma from the Royal College of Music and has continued to make music part of her life. It is a reminder that professional achievement can exist alongside interests and relationships that do not necessarily have a commercial purpose. Perhaps that is the more interesting lesson in her journey.
Success does not have to remain fixed at the point where you first achieve it. A career can provide security and still eventually become a platform for something different. Skills gained in one chapter can become the capital for the next.
And wealth itself can extend beyond what appears on a financial statement. Knowledge, relationships, family, creativity, opportunities and the freedom to make deliberate choices can all form part of what a well-built life looks like.
For women building careers, businesses and financial futures of their own, Akinkugbe’s journey offers a useful question: are you simply building a successful career, or are you building a life that gives you the freedom to decide what comes next?
