In September 2015 Ade Ayeyemi, a veteran Nigerian Banker arrived at Ecobank as a new boss. The institution had 11 million clients and U$ 200 million in pre-tax profits, but weakened by accusations of bad governance and incompetence.
From American Citi, Ayeyemi had a hard time to redress the pan-African bank, present in 33 countries of the continent. With a reputation for intractable cost cutter, has just celebrated five years as head of Ecobank.
Clientele and annual profits doubled under his tenure. Progress obtained at the cost of a heavy price: the group now has a third less bank branches â€" there were less than 850 at the end of 2019 â€" and has lost nearly a quarter of its workforce, to go down with less than 15,000 employees.
At the beginning of October, during an hour-long videoconference interview from the bank's headquarters in Lomé, it was Ade Ayeyemi talkative and proud of his record. He hinted on the digital transformation that he says is a challenge facing the bank in Nigeria and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which contributed to a 22% drop in net profit in the first half.
He sees the crisis linked to Covid-19 as the best way to accelerate technological innovation.
On the issue of having less time at the end of March to close the bank branches in much of Nigeria. Was this a symptomatic challenge of the acceleration of digitization caused by Covid-19?
'The pandemic took us completely by surprise. Lagos, a neighbouring state [Ogun] and Abuja â€" which is a big part of the West African economy â€" have given us forty-eight hours to shut down our branches [under local containment], in order to avoid loss of human life. But people had to continue to live their lives, collecting money and transferring it to other parts of the country,' Ayeyemi says.
Source : https://taarifa.rw/a-company-that-does-not-change-dies-ade-ayeyemi/
