Dr. Bello Lawal Danbatta was appointed the Secretary-General of the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) effective 29 January 2018.

Dr. Danbatta, previously the Director of the Centre of Consultancy and Executive Programmes at INCEIF, has over 25 years combined experience in the private, academia, as well as in the financial services regulation and supervision sectors across Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He is a Member of the Accounting and Auditing Board of Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), and has chaired various working groups for the issuance of financial accounting standards for Islamic financial institutions. He has also been involved in the development and drafting of standards, guidelines and frameworks for capital adequacy, accounting, as well as supervision and regulation of Islamic finance for various countries.

Dr. Danbatta holds a Ph.D. in Islamic Banking and Finance from the International Islamic University Malaysia, and an MBA in Corporate Finance. He is a Chartered Accountant with the Association of Certified Chartered Accountant (ACCA-UK), a Licensed International Financial Analyst (LIFA-UK), and a member of the Chartered Institute of Islamic Finance Professionals (CIIFP), Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM), Certified Pension Institute of Nigeria (CPIN), Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), and International Council for Islamic Finance Educators (ICIFE). Dr. Danbatta is a known Islamic banking and finance consultant, and has been active in providing Islamic finance training and consultancy to central banks, securities commissions, deposit insurance corporations and Islamic banks. He also has a number of publications on Islamic banking, corporate governance and earnings management.

In addition to these corporate engagements, he also held the positions of Assistant Professor at Sultan Qaboos University Oman, a Research Fellow at the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) of University Technology MARA (UiTM), Malaysia and Academic Fellow at Insaniah University Malaysia. He has worked with the Highland Bank of Nigeria Plc, Peugeot Automobiles and Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria.