Jobs/Appointments
Former Chairman of Fidelity Bank Joins Seplat Board
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.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
No fewer than 800 employees of Access Bank Plc have been promoted by the management of the financial institution as it transitions into a holding company (Holdco) structure.
The elevation of the members of staff followed a transparent and robust performance management review in line with global best practices.
According to a statement from the lenders, the beneficiaries were drawn from the senior, middle and junior management levels even as the management strives to continuously put employees in the best position to grow and be successful in today’s highly competitive work environment.
Over the years, Access Bank has demonstrated that employee performance and rewards remain a critical pillar of its business operations and has consistently provided adequate resources to deepen core job skills while entrenching a culture of high performance amongst employees.
The company’s penchant for rewarding high performance is particularly highlighted by the annual CEO Awards, one of the programs under its We Clap Initiative which is designed to support the development of a culture of excellence as well as motivate employees and teams for superior performance.
Recently, Access Bank was named the best institution to work in Nigeria by the global professional network company, LinkedIn, having assessed data across seven pillars that serve as identifiers of career progression, namely: the ability to advance, skills growth, company stability, external opportunity, company affinity, gender diversity and spread of educational backgrounds.
The bank’s consistent growth over the years has been due to the immeasurable effort and sacrifice of its employees.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Some senior civil servants from Lagos and Ogun States recently took a course on economic capacity development and competitiveness strategy at the Lagos Business School (LBS) Pan-Atlantic University campus, Lekki-Epe Expressway, Lagos.
The course, which was held from March 16 to 18 and themed Enhancing Economic Competitiveness, was sponsored by a leading Nigerian real estate group Palton Morgan with the intention to boost the effectiveness of public sector stakeholders.
The beneficiaries were exposed to global best practices on institutional collaborations, Public-Private Partnership (PPP) dynamics, sustainable competitive advantages and cluster participation mechanisms for inclusive national growth.
The well-attended course had senior government officials and public sector stakeholders in the built sector of the economy, special assistants to governors, permanent secretaries and directors at ministries and heads of MDAs relevant to the real estate sectors of both States as participants.
Chairman of Palton Morgan Holdings, Mr Femi Olubanwo, stated that “although LBS usually has the course curriculum attended by corporate executives across sectors for capacity and economic development, we decided to sponsor this course to enrich those who regulate our sector with current knowledge of economic strategies and the power of synergies so that they also can have a contemporary understanding of where the people they regulate are coming from.”
On the choice of Lagos and Ogun, Mr Olubanwo said both are contiguous but work in silos and that it would be beneficial bringing them together.
“If this initiative goes as we hope, we will find Lagos and Ogun states working together on projects, planning, and development, which will benefit our society and sector. We are delighted to be at the vanguard of making that happen,” he said.
Also commenting on the company’s facilitation of the training, the Non-Executive Director at Palton Morgan, Delphine Misan-Arenyeka, said it was part of its social responsibility to the states it operates in.
“We are building the capacity of senior public servants. Hopefully, it will translate to their subordinates and ultimately result in greater success in policy and regulations.
“We looked at the business of Palton Morgan and the value chain and felt that we can bridge the gap between our stakeholders in the public sector and us. We wanted to stimulate a synergy such that they will understand our language when we go to them for approvals and permits that will enhance development in the sector,” Misan-Arenyeka explained.
On his part, the Group Chief Operating Officer at Palton Morgan, Nidal Turjman, stressed that the real estate giant’s contributions to socio-economic development are extensive.
“We have contributions covering the real estate value chain. It could be from property management, construction, logistics, investment advisory, sales and marketing, etc. These are the first course participants, and at Palton Morgan, we are looking to more contributions from stakeholders in this sector so that we can all contribute to growing the economy of Nigeria,” he stated.
The course beneficiaries, on their part, expressed gratitude for the opportunity provided by Palton Morgan to improve their knowledge and progress in their careers with dynamic and relatable industry resources and comparative trends from across the globe.
They all affirmed the importance of collaboration for both states to maximize their economic strengths whilst integrating their competitiveness. They encouraged Palton Morgan to engage in more partnerships to consolidate on growing the potential of the two states.
Some of the beneficiaries were the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Physical and Urban Planning, Lagos State, Abiola Kosegbe, her counterpart at the Lagos State Ministry of Housing, Wasiu Akewusola, Director of ICT and Business Development, Ogun State Housing Corporation, Olufunmilayo Sorunke, and Director, Administration and Personnel, Ogun State Property and Investment Company, Taiwo Ogunyoowo.
Speaking, Kosegbe said, “The fact that you have been able to select people from the built environment to be here is saying that Palton Morgan is interested in developing the sector.”
Sorunke said, “I have learned to develop new business strategies and not business as usual.”
It was gathered that the course facilitators were faculty heads in Business, Strategy, and Economic Planning, including Dr Nkemdilim Iheanachor, member of the Strategy Group at LBS; Dr Dolapo Tukumi, Course Organizer; Dr Frank Ojadi, Member, Faculty of Operations Management at LBS and Lead Facilitator & Manager at LBS, Oreva Atanya.
Others were John Uwajumogu, Partner at Ernst & Young Nigeria; George Agu, Founder/CEO, ActiveEdge Technologies Limited and Ife Adedoyin, Senior Executive, Deloitte.
Palton Morgan Holdings is the parent company of PropertyMart Real Estate Investment Company, Grenadines Homes, The Oceanna, and Paltonloitte. The economic capacity development and competitive strategy course is one of its corporate responsibility initiatives and interventions to impact the sector and society.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
An online-based service provider marketplace known as Makoto.ng has been unveiled by a Nigerian tech startup, Kandem Limited.
The platform will leverage technology to solve the intractable unemployment challenge in Nigeria and complement the efforts of the government to reduce youth unemployment in the country.
The marketplace comprises over 100 categories and subcategories where individual professionals and artisans can create free accounts and host their business profiles online, giving them maximum visibility.
Members can display the services they offer, accept appointments, chat live with clients, indicate their business hours etc. It’s just like having your own office online.
The CEO of Kandem, Mrs Prisca Ossy Prestige, disclosed that “in less than 30 days, over 5,000 independent service providers have signed up and we hope to reach 100,000 members in our first year of operation.”
She stated that the platform has already been giving jobs to Nigerian youth of employable age, who she said are mainly artisans and freelance professionals.
Mrs Prestige explained that as an individual in need of a service, one of the key innovations Mokoto brings to the market is the ability of the platform to automatically read your location as a visitor and present to you the closest service provider within your geographical location.
“What this means is that if you need a plumber, you can visit mokoto.ng and the system will automatically present you with a plumber that is just 1km away from your location. This means faster response and timely delivery for both parties,” she said.
Business Post learned that the platform can be accessed via www.mokoto.ng and on Google Play Store.
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