ECOBANK Group, won the highly coveted Best Place to Work in Africa 2022 Award from the Best Place to Work organisation. The Award honours organisations that exhibit the highest standards of excellence in Human Resources (HR) practices and employees’ experience.
Ecobank Group is the leading private pan-African banking group with unrivalled African expertise. Present in 35 sub-Saharan African countries, as well as France, the UK, UAE and China, its unique pan-African platform provides a single gateway for payments, cash management, trade and investment.
The Group has employed over 13,000 people and offers Consumer, Commercial, Corporate and Investment Banking products, services and solutions across multiple channels, including digital, to over 32 million customers.
Ecobank, recognises people as its greatest asset. As a pan-African bank, Ecobank is intentional in deploying resources to attract, develop and retain the right talent. It actively provides the tools and processes to achieve a performance-driven culture and enabling environment. Receiving international recognition as being one of the Best Places to Work in Africa is a well deserved honour.
The past fiscal year was severely impacted by inflation, rising energy and cereal prices, increasing interest rates, and the weakness of local currencies against the dollar. As a result, the exchange rate worked against Ecobank, whose accounts are denominated in dollars. Economic growth in Africa was less than 4%.
Despite these challenges, the banking group under the leadership of its MD, Jubril Bolaji Lawal, has emerged stronger. With over 25 years of experience in the banking industry, Lawal has gallantly worked in various aspects of banking including Credit Risk Management; Corporate Banking Group; Commercial Banking Group; Investment Banking and Corporate Finance where he served as Group Head. Under his leadership, the Group worked on several landmark debt syndications, capital market and project finance transactions both in Nigeria and abroad.
He has built on the Bank’s innovation, customer service, mobile banking, and online banking, which expanded its customer base significantly. The bank’s technological platform provided a satisfying customer experience. Risk management was cautious, with increased banking revenue and reduced costs. The 21% returns generated robust results.
As a Bank, Ecobank Group has maintained high corporate governance standards and ensures its Board appointments are in line with global best practices. Bolaji Lawal, supported by his well selected team of intellectuals, including his deputy, Carol Oyedeji, has been an integral part of the Bank’s success and has seen the bank evolve and develop through the years.
Jubril Lawal joined Ecobank from Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, in 2022 where he was a senior banking executive and digital transformation specialist for over 28 years. He had deep involvement and experience in digital and retail banking, corporate and commercial banking, credit risk management and corporate finance. His previous experience includes as Executive Director at GTBank Plc Nigeria, and as Non-Executive Director at both GTBank Ghana Limited and Nigeria Interbank Settlement Systems Plc. 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 believes Ecobank’s future lies in digital payments – a strategy that challenges the traditional commercial banking business, but consolidates growth, the bank says.
According to the latest figures, Ecobank Mobile has experienced a 54% increase in transaction value to $7.1bn in the last 12 months.
Under him Ecobank Nigeria, which has invested heavily in technology, has seen its digital division become a major part of its business. As such, only 7% of transactions are now conducted in branches compared to 70% in 2015, and almost half are managed via digital channels.
Known for his preparedness for higher challenges, Lawal is taking Ecobank to the next level of its growth strategy. Despite current global challenges, Africa offers promising prospects. Ecobank is uniquely positioned to provide systematic change across the banking sector at a pan-African level, using the geographic footprint it has already established.
At the helm of Ecobank Nigeria for about 15 months now, Lawal still has so much up his sleeves. He plans to use digital banking and the products developed since 2016 to help transform and grow Ecobank.“The mobile phone is a powerful vehicle for transformation and we need to include more financial services to facilitate payments and communication with users”, he said.
Through Ecobank’s single gateway platform, the bank is well-positioned to provide the necessary financial products and solutions for countries, corporates, and SMEs to capitalise on the continent’s vast resource, trade, and investment opportunities. Ecobank also provides relevant, accessible, and affordable financial services that address the evolving needs of a vibrant, youthful, and entrepreneurial continent.
Lawal’s exceptional and proven qualities as a result-oriented effective leader with an extensive knowledge of the African banking landscape, makes him the ideal choice to steer the growth of Ecobank Nigeria through the current era of rapid global and continental changes.
Olamide Adeniji is a member of the editorial team of TheScript Newspaper
