GT Bank: Race For CEO Hots Up, Agbaje Steps Down Soon |The Source

By Fola James

Three executive directors are currently in keen contest to replace the managing director of Guarantee Trust Bank Plc, Segun Agbaje who is expected to retire by the end of the year.

But, the question of who will step into the big shoe of Agbaje, whose 10 years’ tenure as the chief executive officer ends by the end of the year, has been agitating the minds of close watchers of the tier one bank and the financial sector as a whole.

Those in the frontline for the top job are Demola Odeyemi,  Bolaji Lawal,  Haruna Musa, Miriam Olusanya, and Babajide Okuntola.

There are, however suggestions in the sector that the outgoing CEO has thrown his weight behind a particular executive director among the four contestants, who the magazine learnt are all qualified for the job.

It was also learnt that one of these three contestants; Bolaji Lawal, Demola Odeyemi and Miriam Olusanya will land the job at the end of the day.

“The odds favor Olusanya the only woman contestant. Apart from her sterling qualifications, experts in the sector are rooting for her so that she can join the new generation of women CEOs in the banking sector,”  a big shareholder of the bank said in confidence.

Fidelity Bank has recently nominated a woman CEO designate Nneka -Onyeali-Ikpe.

Agbaje has denied backing any candidate in his recent comment concerning the succession matter. He said all the contestants will be given a fair chance to take a shot to become the managing director of one of the biggest banks in the country.

According to him, the management of the bank has already engaged a recruitment firm from the United Kingdom, UK which will, at the end of the selection process, pick his successor.

He said a new CEO will emerge before the end of the year: “What we are looking for now is a Managing Director for Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria. The process has started, we have 5 executive directors and so all of them are going through the process at the moment.

“We are working with a consulting firm in the UK where we are looking for based upon what we see for the Nigeria business, what we think the future will hold, what we think Nigerian Banking will look like, we will then at the end of this process which will end at the beginning of the fourth quarter, we will then have a Managing Director for GT Bank Nigeria.”

“We have 5 executive directors going through the process and one will emerge before the end of the fourth quarter. So succession for GT Bank Nigeria is well under control.”

Meanwhile, the bank has also announced that it has applied for a Holding Company certificate from Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

GTB is expected to be broken into four subsidiaries: GTB Nigeria, GTB West Africa, GTB East Africa, and GTB UK, by the time the apex bank gave the nod, sources in the bank informed the magazine.