Story: Boahene Asamoah

‘BUILDING a pan-African bank is our core strategy’, says the Chief Executive Officer of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), Mr Anorld Ekpe, who is spearheading Africa’s multi-national bank.
Yet, Arnold remains humble and would rather attribute the success chalked by the bank during his time as the CEO so far to what he described as ‘a good team work’.
‘I am working with a dedicated team of professional who are passionate and committed to Africa’, he stated.
Mr Ekpe suggests that the achievement by the Pan-African bank and Africa’s own global bank is also partly due to the foresight and vision of some his predecessors, adding that ‘I have been lucky to be working with a good team of professionals’.
‘I came it at time when the group wanted to re-launch its growth strategy and expand into other African countries’, he said.
Today, that transformation has seen the bank move from 13 countries in 2006 to 25 countries at the first half of 2008, employing over 14 nationals with a workforce of 10,000 people across Africa.
Trained as a mechanical engineer, he also has a second degree in Banking and Finance, from the Manchester University in the United Kingdom and has a wide experience in banking and finance having worked for ten years with Citibank as head of Corporate and trade finance in Africa.
He described his relations with Ecobank as a ‘love story’, having joined the bank in 1996, left in 2001 and came back in 2003 as its group CEO.
Mr Ekpe and his team of executives have transformed the bank from purely a regional bank to become the biggest bank in Africa in terms of reach, with presence in over 25 countries.
The bank under his leadership was the first to list on three stock exchanges in Africa, propelling other banks in the sub-region to also look beyond their countries.
Today Ecobank is blazing the tale and has set its eyes to become the household name in Africa.
‘We have a dual mission, first, to build a world class pan African bank and secondly to help African economies to grow’, he stated.
The bank has chalked a number of success under the transformational leadership of Arnold and his team.
The recent is the landmark transactions believed to be Africa’s biggest rights issue and public offer to raise $2.5 billion for its expansion programme.
The landmark transaction in the history of Africa share offer and rights issue was simultaneously launched in 25 African countries and is also the first-ever cross-boarder transactions on three stock exchanges in Africa.
These are the Ghana Stock Exchange, the Nigeria Stock Exchange and BRVM of Cote d’Ivoire.
The transaction consists of $1 billion rights issue and $1.5 billion offer for subscription.
This constitutes a rights issue of 3,763,759,981 shares at $0.27 per share, which constitute 40 per cent or $1 billion, while the remaining $1.5 billion would be raised through an offer for subscription at $0.29 per share.
Arnold thinks, what he and his team are pioneering is nothing new but rather what the team has learnt from other global banks like HSBC and replicating such strategies in Africa.
He dismisses suggestions that the rights issue and public offer were ambitious saying, ‘three years ago when set our strategy to be in 20 African countries by 2009, back then it seemed ambitious, but today, we are in 25 countries, doubling the size of our workforce and helping African economies’.
‘We have to think big’, he stated and added that ‘We have not lacked ambition.
The bank during the past three years has made investments in other subsidiaries. Earlier this year, the bank opened its $100 million shared service centre in Accra to process the group’s back office activities.
It has also established the Ecobank Development Corporation, the investment wing of the group, as well as partnered Accion in setting up the micro-finance unit across the group.
‘Africa is our strategy’, he reiterated and explained that the group commitment to Africa was to ensure its operations were not closed down even in times of civil unrest as other businesses do.
Again, he said
One of the challenges Mr Ekpe has come to terms with at the top of the corporate ladder, he stated, is managing growth, getting the right people, service quality and culture as some of the major impediments that confront corporate leaders.
Arnold Ekpe who won African Business Leader of the Year award for last year, says Africa does not lack quality human resources capable of transforming organisations, but was quick to state that ‘some people are born ahead of time, while others live past their time.
In all his accolades, Arnold, remains a simple man and an affable personality and says Africa has good prospects, alluding to the improved good governance in most African countries, relatively stable and growing economies and an emerging middle class that offers tremendous opportunity for the bank.
Arnold prefers to have his private and family life ‘private’.