Ecobank names Citigroup executive Ayeyemi as new CEO

Pan-African bank Ecobank Transnational Incorporated has named Ade Ayeyemi as its new group chief executive, it said on Monday.
The 52-year-old, currently head of Citigroup's sub-Saharan Africa division, will replace Ecobank CEO Albert Essien who is retiring at the end of June after a tenure that began in March 2014 when the board fired his predecessor Thierry Tanoh.
Ayeyemi, who is Nigerian, will lead a bank headquartered in Togo that has operations in 36 African countries and with assets of $22.5 billion at the end of 2013, according to the bank's website.
South Africa's Nedbank acquired a 20-percent stake in Ecobank last year and Qatar National Bank (QNB) also holds a similar stake in the company.
"We are delighted to have secured Ade as the person to lead Ecobank through the next phase of its development and beyond as a world-class pan-African bank," Ecobank group Chairman Emmanuel Ikazoboh said.
Ecobank's board fired Tanoh after a crisis over governance that led to divisions within the bank's leadership. Tanoh has since won a judgement in a court in Togo against the bank for wrongful dismissal and a separate one in Ivory Coast for defamation. Ecobank has appealed both decisions.