As the regional executive and managing director of Ecobank Nigeria Limited, Patrick Akinwuntan, bows out from the bank after giving over 25 years of meritorious service to the bank, he will be greatly missed.
Akinwuntan will retire in January 2022, upon reaching the retirement age, the bank had said in a statement on Monday. The bank also announced the appointment of Jubril Mobolaji Lawal as its managing director designate.
Akinwuntan is a rare breed. We are familiar with individuals who take over bourgeoning establishments and further increase their worth on face value along the line. But it sounds like a fairy tale to have a professional who takes over a near-comatose organization and almost makes a corporate giant out of it. This has been the lot of Ecobank Nigeria.
Within a significantly short space of three years as Ecobank Nigeria boss, the astute banker used his Midas touch to turn things around for the financial institution.
The seasoned banker has been able to change Ecobank’s narrative to a financial institution to reckon with. His superlative, uncommon innovations and transformational strides at the bank have continued to take industry watchers by surprise.
Akinwuntan started his career with Ecobank in 1996. He has held various senior and executive management positions in the over 25 years period he has spent with Ecobank Group, during which he has been based in Ghana, Togo and Nigeria. Before his appointment as regional executive and managing director, Ecobank Nigeria, Patrick 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.
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. Patrick is a seasoned banker who also
was previously 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. He was the pioneer managing director of eProcess S. A., the Ecobank Group’s technology service company, where he ensured the connectivity of all the group’s operations across its vast footprint. Patrick was appointed managing director of Ecobank Nigeria
in July 2018 where he has been rebuilding and repositioning Ecobank Nigeria for growth in the Nigerian market.
Under Akinwuntan’s leadership, Ecobank has won several global, regional and national awards.
Commenting on Patrick Akinwuntan’s retirement, Ade Ayeyemi, CEO, Ecobank Group, said: “We warmly congratulate Patrick as he prepares to retire having given over 25 years of solid contributions to Ecobank. I extend my immense gratitude to Patrick for his long, illustrious and successful career that is now culminating in a well-deserved retirement. His contributions to the Ecobank Group have been invaluable. On behalf of the entire Ecobank Group, I thank him for his years of commitment to the pan-African ideals of Ecobank, his loyalty and hard work in the various positions he has held, most recently as managing director of Ecobank Nigeria, where he has repositioned the franchise for growth. Patrick is leaving an indelible mark and will continue to be a cherished member of the Ecobank family.”
On her part, the chairman of Ecobank Nigeria, Mrs. Bola Adesola congratulated Akinwuntan for his dedicated service to the Ecobank Group “as a whole and the significant work that he has done in repositioning Ecobank Nigeria. On behalf of the Board of Ecobank Nigeria, I wish him a long and happy retirement.”
In his words, humility-personified Akinwuntan said: “It has been a rare privilege to have had the honour of serving for over a quarter of a century at Africa’s most exciting and unrivalled pan-African banking champion,
Ecobank. I am exceedingly thankful to God, my family, friends, all Ecobankers, our founders, shareholders, regulators and all our customers and stakeholders for the support and help that they have given on this journey.”
Akinwuntan holds a Master of Business Administration from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife. He is an alumnus of the senior executive programme (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), Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA), and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (ACTI).
For Akinwuntan, it is a job well done.
(Report by Julius Akpovire Enyeh)