CBN Approves Miriam Olusanya as First Female MD of GTBank

By Dipo Olowookere

Leading financial institution, Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Limited, a subsidiary of the newly established Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) Plc, now has its first female Managing Director and she is Mrs Miriam Olusanya.

A statement from the lender on Wednesday disclosed that her appointment has been approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as well as others.

GTBank Limited will be governed by a board of directors comprising Mr Ibrahim Hassan as Chairman, Mr Jide Okuntola as Deputy Managing Director, Mr Haruna Musa as Executive Director, Mr Olabode Agusto as Independent Non-Executive Director, Ms Imoni Akpofure and Mrs Victoria Adefala as Independent Non-Executive Directors.

As for the parent company, GTCO, it would be led by a board comprising Mr Sola Oyinlola as Chairman, Mr Segun Agbaje as the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr Adebanji Adeniyi as Executive Director, Mrs Cathy Echeozo as Non-Executive Director, Mr Suleiman Barau and Mrs Helen Bouygues as Independent Non-Executive Directors.

GTCO, which was formerly GTBank Plc, re-organised its structure as part of its efforts to strengthen its long-term competitiveness and growth prospects.

Under the terms of the re-organisation, a new operating company has been established and amendments made to the articles of incorporation for a corporate name change. The corporate name of Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc and GTCO Plc will be used by the newly established operating company.

Commenting on the completion of the corporate reorganization, Mr Segun Agbaje said, “We believe that a holding company structure will allow us take advantage of new business opportunities in the emerging competitive landscape and strengthen our earnings base.

“We are very excited to get started on the next phase of our incredible journey to driving Africa’s growth by making end-to-end financial services easily accessible to every African and African Businesses by leveraging Technology and Strategic Partnerships.

“As a bank, we were always looking to meet every customer need; with our corporate reorganization, we will be able to do more to help our customers thrive in this new world of digital technologies and unprecedented possibilities.”

He further stated that, “Whilst we are evolving as an organization, we remain committed to our founding values which have endeared our brand to millions of people across Africa and beyond, and which continues to drive our financial success.

“As a Proudly African and Truly International band, we will continue to live by these values—of excellence, hard work and integrity, even as we create faster, cheaper, safer and more diverse products for people and businesses of varied types and sizes.”

Prior to its corporate reorganization to Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc has been at the forefront of delivering innovative banking products and services to customers and best-in-class Return-on-Equity to shareholders.

It is widely regarded as the best managed financial institution in Nigeria and has, over the past decade, embarked on a period of unparalleled growth, growing its customer base from less than 3 million customers in 2011 to over 24 million customers in 2020, and profit before tax from N45.5 billion at the end of the 2010 financial year to N238.1 billion at the end of the 2020 financial year.