GT Bank: Agbaje, The Radical, Transforming CEO

By Bayo Bernard, Business Editor

The third quarter results released by Guarantee Trust Bank on Plc on October 17 is a pointer that the managing Director/ chief executive officer(ceo) of the bank and its management team remained focused in their quest of piloting the bank on the right direction.

According to the report released by the Nigeria Stock Exchange, NSE, everything looks good for the Agbaje-led bank even as it prepares to enter the 2020 financial year.

Financial analysts have also predicted, based on this report, that the choice bank is rock solid and has put everything in place to surmount any challenges in the sector next year.

The analysts appear right.

The un-audited financial report for the nine months ended September 30, 2019, indicate gross earnings of N324.262 billion.

Net interest income rose to N172.937 billion from N170.641 billion in 2018, while net fee and commission income rose to N46.497 billion, compared with N37.84 billion in 2018.

Loans impairment charges increased from N1.736 billion to N2.761 billion. Profit before tax (PBT) stood at N170.651 billion, up 3.9 per cent from N164.245 billion, while profit after tax (PAT) grew by 3.4 per cent to N146.989 billion as against N142.224 billion in 2018.

Looking at the results, it’s no gain saying the fact that the bank is poised to maintain its solid position as the number two lender in Nigeria’s financial market and possibly do better in coming years, according to sector’s pundits.

But how has the bank been able to whether the storms in the very volatile banking sector?

The answer is not far-fetched, considering that the man who seats atop its management is a seasoned banker with solid penchant for success.

Some say Segun Agbaje is like the proverbial gold fish that has no place to hide. Yes, this assertion may be right to a certain extent.

But the chief executive officer of GTB is more than that.

A testimonial on the bank’s official website says more about the lanky ceo.

“Agbaje possesses a deep understanding of the Nigerian business environment having initiated and led the execution of large, innovative and complex transactions in financial advisory, structured and project finance, balance sheet restructuring and debt and equity capital raising in several sectors of the Nigerian” economy, the bank said.

According to Steve Coomber of the London Business School, Agbaje has been part of the GT Bank’s success story from the beginning when the bank was founded by some young Turks many years ago.

He “worked his way up through positions of increasing responsibility, several events in which Agbaje played a leading role shaped his thinking about GT Bank’s future: the initial public offering in 2004, listing on the Lagos stock exchange; entering the international capital markets with a Eurobond issue and listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2007.”

Even though much has been said about him, the CEO of GT Bank rarely makes public statements despite his modest achievements as one of the top bank CEOs in the country.

On the very rare occasions he stuck his neck out, what he said has resonated in Nigeria’s financial sector as that of an oracle.

Once speaking on his trajectory in GT Bank, Agbaje said his experience since he joined the bank has taught him useful lessons about Nigeria’s financial sector.

Hear him: “Those transactions exposed me to the international financial markets and the people who worked in them – merchant banks, investment bankers, lawyers, investors,” he says.

It gave me a better understanding of what people wanted from a first-class bank and best-in-class practices.

It also encouraged me to think about the bank as an international institution, rather than just a Nigerian institution, and what it took to compete in the global economy,” he said.

Those were indeed, the useful lessons he crafted to the Midas touch he now used to steer GTB from where his predecessors left it, to an enviable position in the banking sector of the economy, those close to him told the magazine.

But taking the bank to the pinnacle of success was not an easy task from the very start after fate thrust the affairs of the bank on his laps following the unfortunate demise of Tayo Aderinokun, his predecessor and boss.

Immediately he took over, some pundits have predicted that the shoes left by former CEOs were too big for him to wear.

They were somehow right considering that his predecessors such as Fola Adeola and Aderinokun indeed left solid imprints in the bank.

But Agbaje has never shown interest in wearing the shoes left by those that once mentored his career.

Neither did he try to limit himself to their successes.

Every man must walk his own path, he had told himself from the beginning.

Those who know him also told the magazine that his decision to steer his own course, is based on the thespian that a leader is made for a particular times and season.

So far nothing has shown that his decision to be his own man was wrong in any way.

Apart from the fact that he has consolidated the position of GT Bank in the financial sector, the bank’s boss has also managed to stand tall despite all the challenges set on his path by those who didn’t want him to succeed.

The fundamentals cannot be so right for a bank which before Agbaje took over struggled between number three and four positions in the sector, to the number two where it now stands.

The bank now ranks among world’s first 1000 banks: Shareholders Funds stands at N35 billion ; Total Assets: 1 trillion; Gross Earnings: N242 billion and Customer Deposits: N44 trillion.

Obviously, no other CEO of the respected bank has faced as much challenge as Agbaje in trying to save the image of the bank from those poised to destroy it.

Sometimes, this comes with a huge cost: personal attacks on his person what he stands for.

But in the face of all these, he has remained focused, what matters to him is to build a bank that will one day become number one financial institution from the number two position it currently occupies.