UI Students Shine in the Global Space, Win Global Award
Lawal Maruf
A team of University of Ibadan students (Team Crest) comprising Boluwatife Omolade (team lead), Adeniyi Adefiyoe, Omotoyosi Olaoye, and Mary Ogunyemi, have achieved a remarkable victory at the global space in the 2023 edition of the McGill International Portfolio Challenge (MIPC) which is the world’s premiere buy-side finance competition.
Defeating all other six continents, Team Crest emerged first from Africa and received the award for “integrating the most sustainable approach into their proposals”.
The team lead, Boluwatife Omolade, described the victory as a huge experience due to the rigorous stages of the competition.
“It was such a great experience for me leading the team in the highest Portfolio Challenge in the world. The team successfully competed against top degree holders and industry experts who were, by far, more knowledgeable than us. However, we pushed beyond our limits to achieve the best result and emerge World class champions.”
He said that MIPC, being a prestigious and the highest portfolio of the world, assembles students from across the globe to devise innovative solutions for complex socio-economic issues.
“In this edition, the teams were tasked with creating a Decumulation Product, specifically building an Inflation Hedging Decumulation Pension Product for retirees in the automobile industry in Canada.”
Highlighting the procedure of the competition, Boluwatife noted that it entailed building, selection, and implementation of portfolios for retirees in Canada.
“Team Crest’s approach involved constructing a portfolio for retirees, carefully selecting a mix of asset classes to form a robust investment portfolio. We went the extra mile by implementing a portfolio optimizer and rigorously backtesting all their strategies.”
Additionally, we devised various hedging strategies and risk mitigants to ensure the strength of their product recommendation,” he added.
Boluwatife considered this great achievement as a honour to Africa at large.
“The outstanding achievement has not only made the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, proud, but has also brought a pride to Africa as a whole.”
He also expressed a profound appreciation to the Dean, Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences, Professor Abiodun Folawewo; the Head of the Department, Faculty of Economics, Professor Abiodun Bankole; the team’s financial sponsor, Professor Adeola Adenikiju; and the staff adviser, Dr. M. A. Adeleke.
