Business leader and first female chairperson of First Bank of Nigeria, Ibukun Awosika, has cautioned couples against allowing finances to create tension in their marriages, emphasising that shared understanding and unity are more important than wealth.
Awosika delivered the message during a sermon at Celebration Church International, in a clip shared on Instagram by Emmanuel Iren. Drawing from her personal journey, she explained how her personality and financial perspective balanced with that of her husband, fostering stability in their home.
“When I say make the money of no consequence in your home, I’m speaking from personal experience,” she said.
She described herself as someone who embraces risk, noting that she managed a manufacturing company at the time, while her husband — a petroleum engineer recognised for his prudence — worked in the public sector of the oil and gas industry.
“When we got married, I as a business person running a manufacturing company, getting contracts, I could get any kind of contract. My husband was a petroleum engineer working in oil and gas at that point, but working in oil and gas in public sector,” she said.
“Now if we never go broke in my family because my husband is the most prudent human being in this world, that’s just the truth. Me, I’m a risk taker, so I can take risks, but he’s a prudent, organised human being. We will never be hungry because he will make sure that we’re not”, she continued.
She revealed that they held firmly to a biblical promise over the years, referencing Amos 9:13.
“Have you read Amos 9? Go to 9.13. We kept picking this promise for a long time because in our church, we pick promises.”
Their partnership eventually yielded major success, as her husband secured an oil field 13 years into their marriage.
“13 years after, they took all the smaller oil fields from the big oil majors and asked Nigerians to apply. Now, if you’re a smart petroleum engineer married to a business-minded wife, the two minds will work together like you can do this and all of that, and my husband is sharp and fantastic at his job.
“So anyway, he and a few of his friends applied. At the end, he got his field, and from that day till now, please go and price furniture and price oil. Let me now tell you the real lesson.
“Whatever way I behaved in the 13 years before, I was about to reap my reward in the years after, and I have reaped them big”, she said.
Awosika encouraged couples to treat money as a resource rather than a source of conflict, underscoring the power of unity in marriage.
“So when I say to you, do not make money an issue in your home. It’s a tool. Use it to achieve the things that you can do together. Whether it’s on the side of the man, on the side of the woman, one plus one is what? Is one.
“You haven’t found a team until you find a team of a husband and a wife who understand who they are in Christ and work together as one. Nothing can stop them”, she concluded.