Olufemi Babalola trained as a lawyer, with preference for commercial and company law, before embarking on a career in enterprise by embarking on a new city project, through creation of an island in the middle of Lagos Lagoon, now known as Gracefield Island.
Olufemi Babalola was born on 29th July, 1963 in Lagos, Nigeria. He started his education at Yaba Methodist School, Lagos. He attended African Church Grammar School, Abeokuta for his secondary school education where he finished in 1980 in flying colours, before proceeding to University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) to read Law. He won the Scholarship of Gulf Oil Company (now Chevron Oil) as one of 2 law undergraduate awardees in a competitive examination process. He obtained the Bachelor of Laws degree, with honours and then proceeded to the Nigerian Law School to qualify as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in 1987. He went on to study International Trade Law at London Guildhall University.
He started his career with the law firm of Bola Ajibola & Co., from where he moved to England. He worked on compliance aspects of the massive privatisation programme in Britain between 1990 and 1992, while at Natwest Stockbrokers, before setting up his own commercial law consulting practice in London.
He later went on to consult for the Federal Government of Nigeria with respect to its social and economic intervention programme, The Petroleum Trust Fund. Olufemi subsequently relocated back to Nigeria by 1996 and in his private law practice, counting many high net worth individuals among the firm’s clients.
With the return of democratic government, he got drawn more into the governance process by serving on the Transition Committee of then Governor-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 1999. He also served as Executive Secretary/Chief Executive of the Technical Committee on Oil and Mineral Resources of Ogun State Government. Between 2005 and 2007, he served as a member of Federal Government of Nigeria’s Gas-to-Power Implementation Committee.
Gracefield Island
Olufemi Babalola’s company, Gravitas Investments Limited is the proponent and owner of the iconic new city that is rising out of the Lagos Lagoon, Gracefield Island. This new cosmopolitan community will settle unto the new Island that is planned and is being constructed to be a truly live-work-and-play environment.
Olufemi as founder and Chief Executive of Gravitas is reflecting his passion for excellence in the implementation of Gracefield Island
Babalola is involved in various charitable activities aimed at improving the well-being of underserved communities. He is particularly interested in supporting education and the arts. He supports a whole lot of people by providing social safety net for them, he likes to do these without fanfare.
Through his company’s GVIP, he is encouraging new talents in enterprise, arts, the built environment to thrive.
