Click to watchThe seeds of Joshua Ishola’s finance career were planted in his early childhood. As a primary school student, he was always watching the evening news, a habit instilled by parents who valued staying informed.
But it was the 2008 global financial crisis that would fundamentally alter his life’s direction.
“My parents, who were doing their best, were told that the financial markets were an opportunity to build wealth long term,” Ishola recalls. “They invested in it. But when the markets went down, they didn’t have good advisers. So they lost out. What was supposed to be the foundation of my college fund went down the drain.”
Joshua’s parents weren’t alone. Across the globe, the 2008 financial crisis left countless families grappling with lost savings, shattered plans, and a profound mistrust of the markets. News archives are filled with stories of people whose lives were upended in the same way, showing just how widespread the crisis’s reach truly was.
For young Joshua, witnessing his parents’ financial devastation crystallised a determination that would define his career: to understand the markets deeply enough to never be caught off guard again.
Click to viewFrom curiosity to calling
By 2012, whilst still in secondary school, Joshua had channelled his nascent understanding of global finance into an article for the school magazine about the causes of the financial crisis. The piece, researched through newspaper clippings sent by his parents to his boarding house, largely went over the heads of both students and teachers alike.
“There was only one teacher who was somewhat able to flow along with the conversation,” he remembers. “That was my first introduction to the idea that yes, you know something, but your knowledge should be able to be transferred to people in a manner that they can understand it.”
This early lesson in communication would prove invaluable throughout his career. Despite being “uninterested in business studies” and gravitating towards science subjects, Joshua’s passion for finance remained, and he decided to pursue a career in commerce. So, when university applications opened, there was “no debate”; it would be finance, with economics as his other option.
Building the foundation
After completing his undergraduate degree at Covenant University, Joshua’s official entry into finance began at Deloitte, as an Auditor, in 2017. However, he knew from the outset that auditing wouldn’t hold his interest long-term. “While it was a very prestigious way to start your career, I knew I was not going to last as an auditor,” he admits. “I knew I wanted to do markets.”
The transition came in 2018 when he joined Coronation Merchant Bank, initially covering the FMCG and energy sectors. His analytical skills soon caught attention when he helped establish the bank’s energy desk, focusing on downstream petroleum products.
But his career-defining moment arrived during a company strategy session.
As the most junior member of a cross-hierarchical team, Joshua volunteered to lead a presentation on business turnaround strategy. His articulation and solutions so impressed senior management that the head of treasury specifically requested him for the global markets team.
The move to treasury and trading marked Joshua’s proper introduction to financial markets. During his tenure, the desk consistently ranked among Nigeria’s top three for fixed income trading volumes. He managed portfolios worth hundreds of millions of dollars, structured complex foreign exchange transactions, and learned to raise capital from offshore investors whilst delivering consistent returns.
Success, however, brought unexpected challenges.
Making significant daily profits created psychological pressures that threatened to overwhelm him. “You would make crazy numbers during the day and the sun would still come out the next morning,” he explains. “In your mind, you should feel like, if I make this type of money today, I should walk on air.”
A senior colleague’s advice proved crucial: find anchors outside the office. Joshua turned to his faith, family, and volunteer work as grounding forces. “Whatever happens in the office dies at the office. I don’t bring it back home,” became his mantra.
Building beyond banking
Joshua’s appetite for diverse experience led him to explore venture capital in 2022, joining a firm focused on African founders globally. The role exposed him to sectors ranging from digital financial access in Uganda to healthcare solutions in San Francisco, teaching him to synthesise information rapidly across industries.
Although his tenure at the firm was brief, the experience reinforced valuable lessons about the importance of execution over ideas. “An idea is wonderful, but execution is also a very key part,” he reflects. “Sometimes it doesn’t work out, and it’s okay.”
This pragmatic acceptance of setbacks reflects one of Joshua’s core principles. Throughout his career, he has been guided by four pillars: empathy, continuous learning, faith, and family. These aren’t abstract concepts but practical frameworks that shape his daily decisions.
“With finance and economics, there’s a way you can have a lord-over-everybody mindset because you look at the world from a macro lens,” he explains. “A key principle for me is empathy.” The commitment extends to his belief that true learning involves both acquiring and distributing knowledge, a philosophy that sees him regularly conducting classes on personal finance for colleagues and friends.
The art of risk management
Joshua’s current role as Group Treasurer and Head of Investment at Canary Group represents the culmination of his diverse experience. Initially responsible for multiple portfolio companies, he has managed everything from day-to-day cash flows to complex exits, including the due diligence work on Juicyway’s entry into Nigeria.
His approach to risk management reflects years of practical experience across different market conditions. Rather than abstract theories, Joshua offers a rather pragmatic philosophy: risk tolerance should align with organisational objectives, not personal preferences.
“For the most part, as an investor, you can’t set the risk appetite; the organisation will set it for you,” he explains. “Your job is to maximise that frontier, that curve of how much risk you can take and how much return you can get from that risk.”
“If I can’t explain a transaction to my boss in a manner that he likes, provide security guarantees, and assure return on investment, I don’t waste my time on it,” Ishola says.
Joshua’s practical wisdom for small business owners
When pressed about advice for small businesses, deposit-taking handling customers’ funds and non-deposit-taking handling idle cash, Joshua’s response centres on what he calls a “stewardship mindset”—treating all business funds as belonging to those who entrusted them to you. “People have shown trust in putting money with you. Don’t erode that trust. No amount of return is worth the erosion of trust,” he states.
His guidance distils into three critical questions most business owners fail to ask. Can you establish clear policies that guarantee the return of capital through secure deposits? Can you genuinely manage two businesses simultaneously—your core operation and trading activities? Do you possess any meaningful advantage in markets filled with sophisticated players?
For smaller enterprises, his advice is unequivocal: start with simple deposit products, build cash management discipline, and only consider complex treasury strategies when you can afford dedicated and experienced investment professionals.
As he puts it, “Money has principles. How you treat it will deliver fixed, universal results.”
That clarity of thought extends to his outlook on Nigeria’s financial future. In an environment often marked by volatility and uncertainty, Ishola sees opportunity in innovation and education. He stresses the importance of continuous professional development for young finance professionals, alongside a stronger push for financial literacy across society. For him, both are essential to building a healthier economy and a more resilient financial system.
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