Former Defunct Skye Bank Director Joins Wema Bank

By Dipo Olowookere

A former executive director of the defunct Skye Bank Plc, Mrs Ibiye Asime Ekong, has been appointed to the board of Wema Bank Plc.

The operating licence of Skye Bank was revoked by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and then nationalised to Polaris Bank. Mrs Ekong served on the board of the financial institution until she retired.

But Wema Bank intends to tap into the over 28 years’ experience of the financial professional, who is an expert in accounting and banking and finance with a passionate bias for retail banking.

A statement issued by Wema Bank said the new appointee is coming on board as an independent non-executive director to replace Ms Tina Vukor-Quarshie, who left after the expiration of her tenure.

Mrs Ekong started her professional working career as Management Trainee and later Assistant Treasurer at John Holt Plc where she was charged with funds management and foreign exchange bidding management. She later joined banking at Chartered Bank Plc’s Correspondent Banking Unit and was at one time, the Treasurer of the bank managing the bank’s assets and liabilities.

She was part of the pioneer team that transformed the operations of Prudent Merchant Bank to commercial banking, contributing to the growth and development of Prudent Bank in various senior management capacities, to wit: Senior Manager (Treasury, Assistant General Manager (Treasury), Deputy General Manager (Corporate Banking).

From 2006, as part of the consolidated Skye Bank team, she was General Manager (Business Development) and Head of Enterprise Risk Management before becoming an Executive Director in charge of the South-South, Edo, Delta and South-East regions of the bank, as well as Head of the retail banking team.

Mrs Ekong is a Fellow and former Council Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) and currently serves on the Finance and General Purposes Committee of the Governing Council of the CIBN.

She is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and member of the Institute of Directors (IoD) and the Risk Management Association of Nigeria. 5he served as a member of the Audit Committee of Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS) and member of the Audit Committee of CIBN and member of several other committees of the CIBN.