First Bank Holdco: Okonkwo Assumes GMD Role Amidst High Expectations

By Bayo Bernard, Business Editor

The group managing director of First Bank Nigeria, FBN Holdings Plc Nnamdi Okonkwo did not have to wait for too long after he retired from his former position as managing director/ chief executive of Fidelity Bank Plc, to pick up another appointment in Nigeria’s oldest bank.

Okonkwo retired from his former job in December 2020 after a successful career with the new generation bank, transforming a once regional bank to a financial behemoth with a national outlook.

His achievements of transforming Fidelity from ‘Igbo’ bank to a booming bank with a national outlook, as it seems, may have worked for him considering that many of his contemporaries and former managing directors of banks in the country were not so lucky; while some were disgraced out of office for one reason or that other, those that escaped the hammer of disgraceful termination of appointment were either prosecuted over crime they committed while in office.

Others remain irrelevant for the rest of their lives as soon as they left their plum job as chief executives.

But that obviously was not the case with the Anambra state born banker and financial guru, who never had the unfortunate experience of becoming irrelevant in the banking and financial sector of the economy where he has put in at least three decades of his working life: as soon as he ceremoniously left  his former job, he was quickly employed by First Bank less than a year after he retired.

For FBN Holdings Plc, Okonkwo fits right in following the voluntary retirement of UK Eke. His appointment also confirms First Bank’s mantra of choosing the best in the industry to occupy sensitive positions in the oldest financial institution in the country.

For instance, the magazine learnt that picking Okonkwo out of the long list of A-list candidates did not come as an easy job, particularly considering serious pressure that piled on the management by prominent Nigerians who wanted their own candidate to land the premium job.

“The magic that worked for Okonkwo is the fact that he’s still very young, despite putting in decades in the industry in some of Nigeria’s top banks, capping it up as the chief executive. For us, we think he still has more to offer the sector, having performed excellently, with good records to show that he’s a high performer, particularly the manner he engineered the transformation of a one-time regional bank to a national bank with a solid capital base within a short time.

“Apart from this, Okonkwo has a solid clientele of high-profile Nigerians and foreign investors which he can bring to the fore in his new job. This, for us, is the most important selling point” a top source in the bank said.

Another investor in the country informed the magazine that he’s happy with Okonkwo’s appointment, because according to him, he keeps his word with people no matter the circumstances.

The ebullient banker has come a long way

Okonkwo started his banking career in the financial sector in 1990 at Merchant Bank of Africa. In 1993, he moved to Guarantee Trust Bank (GTBank) and rose to become a branch manager before he joined United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc.

While at UBA, he held various managerial and leadership positions. First as Regional Bank Head in Lagos; Regional Director, Federal Capital, Nigeria; Project Director, and Head of Corporate Banking and Multinational Corporates Division; Managing Director/CEO of UBA Ghana; and finally, Regional CEO of the bank’s West Africa Monetary Zone covering Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

In 2012, Nnamdi Okonkwo left UBA and joined Fidelity Bank Plc as the Executive Director in charge of the Bank’s businesses in Southern Nigeria. He was tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the bank’s entire business across Southern Nigeria excluding Lagos and West.

He held the Executive Director position until January 1 2014, when he was appointed the Managing Director/ chief executive officer, CEO of the bank, where he eventually retired on December 31, 2020 having set the commercial bank on a solid track.

Many stakeholders have high expectations that Okonkwo will not fail in bringing his expertise to fore in his new role as Group Managing Director, GMD First Bank Holdings, FBN Plc.