A decade ago, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), which is the holding group for the Ecobank subsidiary banking institutions that we know, became embroiled in one of the most spectacular corporate governance train smashes of the African 21st century.
In October 1985, ETI was incorporated with an authorised capital of $100 million. The initial paid-up capital of $32 million was raised from over 1,500 individuals and institutions from West African countries.
The largest shareholder was the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and Development, the development finance arm of ECOWAS.
With its headquarters in Lomé, Togo, Ecobank is the widest pan-African bank as it has operations in 36 countries on the continent and is traded on the Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria stock exchanges. Totally irrelevant but a fun fact: the largest bank in Africa by tier 1 capital size is Stanbic Kenya’s parent, the Standard Bank Group at $13.6 billion as at the end of 2022.
But let’s go back to April 2013 when the group CEO (GCEO) of ETI, a gentleman who had been recruited less than two years before from the International Finance Corporation, was sipping on a hot cappuccino in his lofty office perched high in a glass and steel structure in Lomé.
A letter landed on his desk from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The cappuccino foam started to congeal in his stomach as he read the contents that said your group chairman has integrity issues, blah...
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