Ecobank Appoints Cissé As Company Secretary

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Mr Madibinet Cissé has been appointed as the Group Head, Legal and Company Secretary/Group Counsel of Ecobank.

The appointment was announced by Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), parent company of the Ecobank Group.

In a statement issued on Friday in Lome, Togo, it was disclosed that the appointment of Mr Cissé takes effect on January 9, 2017.

Mr Cissé replaces former Company Secretary and Group Counsel, Mr Samuel Ayim, who took leave of the company in July to pursue other opportunities.

The new appointee would be expected to jointly report to the Ecobank Group CEO and the ETI Board of Directors.

Mr Cissé has a wealth of experience in the legal field. He comes to Ecobank from the Africa Finance

Corporation (AFC) in Lagos, Nigeria, where he is currently Senior Vice President and Lead Counsel. He is an English law, French law and Organisation for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) qualified lawyer and an attorney and counsellor at law at the New York Bar of Attorneys.

Before joining AFC, Mr Cissé worked as Senior Legal Counsel at the African Capacity Building Foundation in Harare, Zimbabwe.

He was an associate in the finance departments of two Paris law firms – Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and Gide Loyrette-Nouel. He was also an associate in the legal and tax department of Ernst & Young in Conakry, Guinea.

In addition to his expertise in corporate secretariat- and governance-related work, Mr Cissé also specialised in bilateral borrowing, bond issues, equity investment and debt financing for major infrastructure projects across various sectors across Africa, including those in power and energy, roads, transport and Logistics, oil and gas, mining, heavy industries and telecommunications.

A national of Guinea, Mr Madibinet Cissé holds a Masters degree in Law from the Harvard Law School, a Masters degree in Banking and Finance from the Université Paris Descartes in Paris, a Masters in Business Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Law from the Université Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense in Paris.