There has been a change of guard at trans African lending powerhouse Ecobank Group, Nigerian subsidiary with the Bank announcing the upcoming retirement of Patrick Akinwuntan, Regional Executive and Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria. As Akinwuntan is set for retirement in January 2022, upon reaching the retirement age, the Bank has announced Mr Jubril Mobolaji Lawal as Regional Executive and Managing Director-designate.

According to a statement signed by Adenike Laoye, Group Head, Corporate Communications and Chief of Staff to the Group Chief Executive Officer, the appointment which will take effect in January 2022, is contingent on the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Mr Patrick Akinwuntan started his career with Ecobank in 1996. He has held various senior and executive management positions in the over 25 years he has spent with the Ecobank Group, during which he had been based in Ghana, Togo and Nigeria. 

Before his appointment as Regional Executive and Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, he was the Group Executive, Consumer Banking, where he was responsible for leading the Consumer Banking business across Ecobank’s global network of 39 countries, 35 of which are in Africa.

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He managed the Group’s digital transformation journey and has been instrumental in the development of the world-class digital products and services that Ecobank provides today.

Akinwuntan is a seasoned banker who also previously was on the Board of ETI as a Group Executive Director and held the positions of Group Chief Finance Officer of ETI, Group Executive Director Domestic Bank, Operations, Technology, Transaction and Retail Bank, including Executive Director, Retail Bank at Ecobank Nigeria, among others.

A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA), he also holds a Master of Business Administration from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife. He is an alumnus of the senior executive program (SEP) of the Harvard Business school, an honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (FCIB), Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administrators of Nigeria (FICA) and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (ACTI).

The Managing Director designate, Mobolaji Lawal, is joining Ecobank from GTBank Nigeria, where he was a senior banking executive and digital transformation specialist for over 28 years.

He has deep involvement and experience in digital and retail banking, corporate and commercial banking, credit risk management and corporate finance. His previous experience includes being Executive Director at GTBank Plc Nigeria, and Non-Executive Director roles at both GTBank Ghana Limited and Nigeria Interbank Settlement Systems Plc.

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He led the team that envisioned and implemented GTBank Plc retail and digital banking strategy to achieve industry-wide leadership over a ten-year period and he introduced new products and solutions that have helped to deepen payments and access to digital financial services in Nigeria. 

He was selected and appointed as Managing Director designate following a keenly contested selection process, which included both internal and external candidates.

Mobolaji Lawal holds a Bachelor of Law degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria; B.L. from the Nigerian Law School and a Master of Business Administration from Oxford University, United Kingdom. He has also attended several executive management and banking specific developmental programmes at leading educational institutions including Harvard Business School, Stanford Graduate School of Business and Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires (INSEAD).

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Commenting on the appointment, Ade Ayeyemi, CEO, Ecobank Group, said: “We welcome Mobolaji Lawal to the Ecobank Group and we stand to benefit from the extensive experience that he has acquired in various fields across banking, which will play a major role in continuing to rebuild our franchise in Nigeria. Nigeria is a key market for us, in which we have seen significant improvement over the past three years as we reposition and leverage upon our pan-African strengths in digital products and services, payments and as the go-to-bank for businesses seeking to grasp the growth opportunities being created by the AfCFTA, across all our markets on the continent. I wish Mobolaji the best and assure him of both my support and that of the entire Ecobank Group.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry