By Dipo Olowookere
The former Chairman of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mr Ernest Ebi, has been appointed to the board of Seplat Energy as a non-executive director.
He is a nominee of Shebah Petroleum Development Company Limited (BVI) replacing Mr A.B.C Orjiako, who will step down from the board after the Annual General Meeting (AGM) slated for May 18, 2022.
Mr Ebi is one of the three directors appointed to the board of the company listed on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited and the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
The other two appointees are Mrs Bashirat Odunewu as an independent non-executive director and Mr Kazeem Raimi as a non-executive director.
Mr Ebi served as the board chairman of Fidelity Bank from 2016 to 2020 and AIICO Pension Managers between 2010 and 2021 and currently serves as an independent director on the board of Dangote Cement Plc, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Coronation Capital Limited and Coronation Asset Management Limited.
Business Post reports that from 1999 to 2009, he was the Deputy Governor at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), where he covered policy and corporate services portfolios.
In 1995, he was appointed by the CBN and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) as the Managing Director/CEO of New Nigerian Bank Plc and was responsible for the development and implementation of a credible turnaround plan for the bank and contributed significantly to the recovery of a huge portfolio of non-performing risk assets.
On the part of Mr Raimi, is a nominee of Platform Petroleum Limited replacing Mr Austin Avuru who stepped down from the board of Seplat Energy on March 1, 2022. He is presently the Executive Director, Commercial for Platform Petroleum Limited.
He was previously with Seplat Energy as General Manager, Commercial, where he was charged with the responsibility for driving commercial, economics, valuation, planning and treasury activities across the entire organisation.
Mr Raimi was once a Treasury Manager at Cadbury Nigeria Plc and Finance Analyst at Citibank Nigeria Limited and had significant involvement in commercial and economic evaluations of new ventures, farm-in and company acquisition opportunities with a thorough appreciation of tax, fiscal issues and project economics especially as they relate to Nigeria, Gabon, Iraq and Cameroon.
As for Mrs Odunewu, she is an Independent NED on the board of Neimeth International Pharmaceuticals Plc and is also a member of the board of directors for the Franco-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce and Industry where she serves as the Treasurer.
Up till June 2021, she served as C-Suite executive, corporate banking (Energy, Natural Resources & Infrastructure), at First Bank Nigeria Ltd and was before then the line executive for their international banking group where she supervised CEOs of the subsidiaries of First Bank in six African countries as well as the bank’s representative office in China.
While commenting on the appointments, Mr Orjiako expressed the desire of the Seplat board to have these respected personalities in their midst, saying the company “looks forward to the enormous contributions they will make towards achieving global success.”
Editor’s Note:
The headline and the lead have been corrected to Fidelity Bank from defunct Diamond Bank. We apologise for the error.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Aduragbemi Omiyale