By Ahmed Rahma
The news of the expansion of the board of Sterling Bank Plc excited investors at the stock market on Wednesday and it propelled the 4.83 per cent recorded by the bank’s equities.
The development caused a slight bargain hunting in the shares of the financial institution, resulting in the 42.2 per cent increase in the volume of the company’s stocks traded yesterday.
On Wednesday, a total of 2,119,887 units of Sterling Bank equities were transacted by investors compared with the 1,490,880 units traded at the preceding day.
Business Post reports that a day earlier, Sterling Bank announced the appointment of two Indians as non-executive directors; Mr Ankala Syam Prasad and Mr Paritosh Tripathi. They were picked to replace Mr Ramesh Rajapur and Mr Grama Narasimhan on the board.
According to the lender, the appointments are subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Mr Prasad is presently the Country Head and Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Executive Committee of State Bank of India’s South African Operations. He joined the State Bank of India in 1995 as a Probationary Officer and has served in various capacities. He has extensive banking experience and is an expert in project finance, with responsibility for large corporates, foreign exchange business including trade transactions. He is well versed in regulatory compliance and reporting, identifying risk and its mitigants.
Mr Prasad obtained his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from Nagarjuna University, India. He also obtained an MBA (Financial Management) from the University of Mumbai, India.
Mr Tripathi is also presently the General Manager Operations, International Banking Group of the State Bank of India (SBI). He joined the State Bank of India in 1990 as a Probationary Officer and has over the years served in various capacities.
He has over 30 years of banking experience and he is an expert in the implementation of IT-related policies and IT Infrastructure. He oversees the Operations & Information System Functions. He is responsible for HR and Overseas Expansion Planning and Strategy and also has oversight functions on performance monitoring, budgeting, strategy, advertisement and marketing at SBI.
Mr Tripathi holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Lucknow. He is a certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers.