Posted by By Ayodele Aminu on
The board of directors of Intercontinental Bank yesterday announced the appointment of four new Executive Directors to strengthen its group consolidation plan.
* Appoints 4 new directors
The board of directors of Intercontinental Bank yesterday announced the appointment of four new Executive Directors to strengthen its group consolidation plan.
The new appointments are coming barely 24 hours after the board of directors of Afribank Nigeria Plc asked its Managing Director and two other Executive Directors to resign. First Bank of Nigeria Plc had also asked four of its Executive Directors to step down and announced replacements Monday.
Intercontinental Bank group comprises Intercontinental Bank, Equity Bank Plc, Global Bank Plc and Gateway Bank Plc.
A statement from the bank named the new directors as Mr. Akintola Ajayi and Mr. Cletus Okoro who are currently serving in Equity Bank as Managing Director and Executive Director respectively.
Others are Mr. Olayinka Adebiyi currently acting Managing Director of Global Bank and Mr. Olusegun Ajibola presently General Manager, Commercial Banking Intercontinental Bank. Also the current acting Managing Director of Gateway Bank, Mr. Oluwatoyin Ehinlaiye, who was appointed a couple of months ago would now serve as Executive Assistant to the Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Erastus Akingbola.
The new appointments, according to the statement, followed the reappointment of the existing executive members of the Intercontinental Board, which comprises of Akingbola as the Vice Chairman/CEO, Mrs. Abiola Otaniyi, Mr. Nelson Nweke and Alhaji Sheriff Yusuff, as Executive Directors.
'The board re-composition was part of the efforts towards merging with the sister banks in the Intercontinental Bank Group namely Equity Bank, Gateway Bank and Global Bank, which have already set to roll out one of the largest banking groups in West Africa next month with combined capital base of N50 billion and asset base of N270 billion. The Intercontinental Bank alone had capital base of N35 billion and asset base of N203 billion as at February 2005," the bank noted in the statement.
The reappointment of Akingbola is perceived in banking circles as a demonstration of the Board's implicit confidence on his managerial acumen and professional integrity to pilot the affairs of the new mega bank.
Born 54 years ago, Akingbola engineered one of the most successful merchant - commercial banking transitions in the country. Today, Intercontinental Bank has emerged as one of the fastest growing retail banks in Nigeria.
Akingbola who holds among others, an MBA degree from the University of Lagos has had over 34 years continuous banking practice embracing commercial/merchant banking, discount house operations, leasing and insurance.