Arise Sends Malik to Ecobank Board After Purchase of 14.1% Stake

After buying the 14.1 percent stake in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the parent company of the Ecobank Group, Arise B.V. (Arise) has nominated Mr Deepak Malik to the board of the financial institution.

In June 2019, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, announced that it was divesting its 14.1 percent equity stake in Ecobank managed by its subsidiary, its wholly-owned subsidiary, IFC Asset Management Company (AMC). Two months later, Arise was announced as the new owners of the divested equity stake in the bank.

Last week, Ecobank said Arise has nominated Mr Malik to the board as a non-executive director.

Since January 2017, Mr Malik has been the Chief Executive Officer of Arise, whose core mandate is to partner with sustainable financial services providers to advance financial inclusion in Africa.

Prior to joining Arise, Mr Malik was part of the management team at Norfund, a Development Finance Institution where he fulfilled the positions of Head of the Southern Africa Office and Head of Department, Financial Institutions, for over 13 years. In these roles he had overall responsibility for Norfund’s financial institutions portfolio in the Southern Africa region, Central America and South Asia.

Mr Malik has also been the Regional Representative of the Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), which is the Danish Government’s investment arm for developing countries, Managing Director of the Development Bank of Zambia and has held senior executive positions at Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines.

He is currently on the Board of Directors of various financial institutions.

Mr Malik is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, India, and has a Bachelors’ Degree in Commerce (Honours) from the University of Delhi, India.

Meanwhile, Ecobank has announced the resignation of Mr Monish Dutt, who was nominated by IFC to the board as a director of the lender.

In a statement, the financial institution expressed “its gratitude to him for his contributions to ETI while in office.”