Oteh worked for various institutions including the
Harvard Institute for International Development and Centre Point Investments Limited of Nigeria in corporate finance, consulting, teaching and research. She joined the
African Development Bank (AfDB) in 1992. Oteh and the committee chairman had a heated exchange over the focus of the hearing, leading to the chairman's resignation from the committee after allegations that he had asked for a bribe to influence the House Committee inquiry, and that he had collected public funds to attend a workshop in the
Dominican Republic but had neither attended the program nor returned the money. In June 2012, The second press statement stated that "[n]o financial overtures have ever been made to the Hon. Hembe by Ms. Oteh, DG SEC or any staff of SEC." A new eight-man Ad hoc committee was set up by the House of representatives to complete the hearing on the near collapse of the capital market. As a possible fallout of the events that had taken place at the public hearings, Arunma Oteh was asked to proceed on compulsory leave by the SEC board, pending an independent investigation into the management of Project 50, a program packaged by her to commemorate 50 years of capital market regulation in Nigeria. At a point, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who is the Supervising Minister in charge of the commission urged Nigerians to exercise patience pending the outcome of the investigation by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). And at last, Arunma was exonerated by the firm of any criminal breaches. On July 18, 2012, Oteh was called back to resume work after an independent investigation by the board-appointed firm,
PricewaterhouseCoopers, cleared her of any financial impropriety. Oteh's concluded her 5-year tenure as SEC DG in January 2015.
World Bank, 2015–2018 In July 2015,
Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank appointed Arunma Oteh Vice President and Treasurer of the institution. In late 2018, Oteh left the World Bank to join
St Antony's College, Oxford University, as an academic scholar
FSD Africa, since 2022 In October 2022, FSD Africa, a development agency focused primarily on financial markets in Africa, announced that it had appointed Arunma Oteh to its board of directors.
Also including Ecobank, Non-Executive Member of the Board of Directors (since 2019) ==Other activities==