Banking: The Amazons are Taking Over
Over the years women have played and continue to play a key role in Nigeria’s banking sector.
Despite their impact, women have been underrepresented at almost all levels of the global financial system, from depositors and borrowers to bank board members and regulators.
According to a 2018 report by the World Economic Forum (WEF), involving women in the financial system—from both the customer side (depositors and borrowers) and the firm side (at higher levels of leadership within a financial firm)—makes the banking industry as a whole more stable.
Interestingly, the WEF report indicates that banks with more women on their boards tend to have greater resistance to stress, higher capital buffers, and a lower proportion of nonperforming loans, according to the study.
It stated further that, increasing female representation in the financial sector yields more stability for a bank, which in turn can mean better returns for both investors and employees.
However, the trend is fast changing, especially in Nigeria where women are taking charge of some of the biggest commercial banks in the country.
In the last five years, Nigeria’s banking sector has witnessed a rise in the appointment of female chief executive officers, which analysts and stakeholders have described as a welcome development that would impact positively on the sector. Below are some of the banks where this paradigm shift has taken place.
Fidelity Bank
Last year, one of the leading commercial banks in Nigeria, Fidelity Bank Plc announced the appointment of Mrs Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe as its new Chief Executive Officer-Designate.
Her appointment followed the exit of Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, who retired from the bank’s board of directors on December 31st, 2020.
Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe’s appointment took effect on January 1st, 2021. Before she took over, she was an Executive Director at Fidelity Bank, overseeing the tier-2 bank’s Lagos and South-West Directorate.
A consummate banker with over 30 years of experience, Fidelity Bank insiders did not see her appointment as a surprise given the strategic role she had played while leading the positive transformation of the Lagos/South West Directorate of the bank. Her rich background had spanned stops at Standard Chartered Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Citizens Bank Limited and Enterprise Bank where she held several top management positions in legal, treasury, investment banking, corporate banking as well as retail/commercial banking.
Guaranty Trust Bank
In the same vein, Guaranty Trust Bank, in July this year, announced the appointment of Miriam Olusanya as Managing Director.
Miriam Olusanya is an accomplished banker with over 21 years of experience spanning transaction services, treasury, assets and liability management, corporate finance and wholesale banking. She joined GTB in 1998 as an executive trainee and has risen through the ranks, holding strategic leadership positions on the way to her new position.
Prior to her recent appointment, she was the Group Treasurer and Head of Wholesale Banking. Olusanya also serves on the Board of Guaranty Trust Bank (Gambia) Limited as a non-executive director.
FCMB
Similarly, the Management and Board of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Plc, early this year named Yemisi Edun as Acting Managing Director.
According to reports, the appointment of Yemisi Edun was taken in a bid to fill the void left by the former Managing Director, Adam Nuru, who proceeded on a voluntary leave to ensure sanctity in the bank’s investigation of charges against him.
Until her recent appointment, Yemisi Edun was the immediate past Chief Financial Officer of the Bank, a role she held after serving in various capacities in the bank since joining in 2000.
With the appointment, Yemisi Edun joined the numerous female CEO of Nigerian commercial banks, including Fidelity Bank, Unity Bank, and Citi Bank.
Unity Bank
With the enviable position, Somefun, an award-winning Nigerian banker became the first woman in the bank’s history to hold this position
She had earlier been appointed as an Executive Director 4th of March 2015 in the bank. Her remarkable performance as Executive Director earned her the enviable position as the MD/CEO of the bank.
Prior to the recent appointments, the banking sector has had other female chief executives currently piloting the affairs of their banks.
Some of these female CEOs include Bola Adesola, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank Limited, Nigeria, Ibukun Awosika, Chairperson, Board of Directors, First Bank of Nigeria Limited and Mosun Belo-Olusoga – The Chairperson, Board of Directors of Access Bank Plc.
Experts’ Views
Commenting on the completion of the corporate re-organisation, the Group Chief Executive Officer of GTCo, Mr Segun Agbaje said: “We believe that a Holding Company Structure will allow us take advantage of new business opportunities in the emerging competitive landscape and strengthen our earnings base. We are very excited to get started on the next phase of our incredible journey to driving Africa’s growth by making end-to-end financial services easily accessible to every African and African businesses by leveraging Technology and Strategic partnerships. As a bank, we were always looking to meet every customer need; with our corporate re-organisation, we will be able to do more to help our customers thrive in this new world of digital technologies and unprecedented possibilities.
‘’Whilst we are evolving as an organisation, we remain committed to our founding values which have endeared our brand to millions of people across Africa and beyond, and which continues to drive our financial success. As a proudly African and Truly International brand, we will continue to live by these values-of excellence, hard work and integrity, even as we create faster, cheaper, safer and more diverse products for people and businesses of varied types and sizes.’’
A banker with one of the new generation banks, Mr Salisu Umaar said that appointing women into such positions is positive in the sense that there has been agitation for more female participation in every sector and the banking sector is not excluded.
He said that before now, there had been more women coming on board as chairmen of boards of banks.
Also, a senior lecturer at the Economics department of the University of Lagos applauded the trend saying it is the right in the right direction.
The lecturer who spoke under condition of anonymity said that “bringing women at the helm of affairs is a positive development to the sector and the country as whole”.
According to the University don, there has been agitation for gender equality and people will now begin to see Nigeria as country promoting gender balance in that industry.
Women In Banking: A Global Perspective
In a 2018 report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by Martin Cihak, Advisor, IMF Monetary and Capital Markets Department and Ratna Sahay, Deputy Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, IMF, it was disclosed that greater inclusion of women as users, providers, and regulators of financial services would have benefits beyond addressing gender inequality. Narrowing the gender gap would foster greater stability in the banking system and enhance economic growth. It could also contribute to more effective monetary and fiscal policy.
Women on average accounted for just 40 percent of bank depositors and borrowers in 2016, according to IMF survey results published this year—the first time such data became available. Underlying these aggregate figures are large variations across regions and countries. For example, women accounted for 51 percent of borrowers in Brazil, compared with only 8 percent in Pakistan.
Also growing evidence suggests that increasing women’s access to and use of financial services can have both economic and societal benefits. For example, in Kenya, women merchants who opened a basic bank account invested more in their businesses. Female-headed households in Nepal spent more on education after opening a savings account.
PROFILE OF FEMALE BANK CEOs
Oluwatomi Somefun: The CEO/MD Of Unity Bank Plc
Oluwatomi Somefun is an award-winning Nigerian banker. She is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/ Managing Director (MD) of Unity Bank, making her the first woman in the bank’s history to hold this position.
Mrs. Oluwatomi Somefun was born on the 2nd of October.
In 1981, Mrs. Somefun obtained a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) in English from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife). After she received her certificate in English Education, she went on to register at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
Eventually, she became a Chartered Accountant in 1982. Mrs. Somefun is currently an ICAN fellow. She is married and blessed with children.
Mrs. Somefun constantly attends both local and foreign training. Some of these training includes the industry-specific EuroMoney training, and INSEAD Fontainebleau, France. She is also an alumnus of the prestigious Harvard Business School and the University of Columbia Business School, New York.
Mrs. Somefun is a member of several professional bodies, including the Institute of Directors (IOD), Bank Directors Association of Nigeria (BDAN), and Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).
Mrs Somefun started her career in the financial service industry with Peat Marwick and Co. After, she moved to Arthur Andersen – now KPMG. Oluwatomi has also worked with other reputable companies like Ventures and Trusts Ltd, Credit Bank Ltd.
Her job role was dynamic giving her a wealth of experience. She worked in different departments at various times in her career. She has experience in treasury and institutional banking, investment banking, retail, and commercial banking.
Mrs. Somefun also had a successful career at the United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA). While at UBA, she managed and sat on the boards of several subsidiaries, including UBA Trustee, UBA Plc, UBA Capital, and Trustee Ltd.
The phenomenal banker was the pioneering Managing Director (MD)/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UBA Pension Custodian Ltd. She managed UBA Pension Custodian Ltd for eight years and also supervised the South-West region of the bank at the same time.
Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, CEO, Fidelity Bank Plc
Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, born 16th August 16, 1968, is a Nigerian business executive and banker. She is the first female managing director and Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank PLC, a Nigerian financial institution.
Onyeali-Ikpe was born in Awka, Anambra State, in Eastern Nigeria. She also lived in Owerri, Imo State, where she studied at the Federal Government Girls’ College.
The astute banker has a law degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. She also has a master’s degree in Law from King’s College London, United Kingdom (UK).
She started her banking career as a legal officer with the defunct African Continental Bank in 1990. She then joined the First African Trust Bank as a treasury officer. She later joined Zenith Bank and Standard Chartered Bank respectively.
In 2011, she joined Enterprise Bank as an executive director of the bank’s operations in Lagos and other locations in the South-Western region in Nigeria.
Onyeali-Ikpe joined the commercial bank Fidelity as an executive director in January 2015. Fidelity Bank announced Onyeali-Ikpe as its managing director in December 2020.
Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe is married.
Miriam Olusanya, Managing Director, Guaranty Trust Bank
Miriam Olusanya joined Guaranty Trust Bank in 1998, after 2 years at SmithKline Beecham Nigeria (now GlaxoSmithKline – GSK).
Miriam Olusanya had a short stint in Transactions Services and later moved to the Bank’s Treasury Group in 1999. She managed the local and foreign currency trading desks before becoming the Bank’s Chief Dealer in 2003 and subsequently, Treasurer in 2004.
In 2006, she led the team that secured the appointment of the Bank as a Primary Dealer/ Market Maker in Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) Bonds with the Debt Management Office (DMO).
Olusanya, until her appointment was an Executive Director at the bank.
She has over 20 years of banking experience across various units, including Transaction Services, Asset and Liability Management, Financial Markets, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations.
She joined GTbank as an Executive Trainee and rose to the position of a General Manager until she was appointed Executive Director.
Miriam Olusanya earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical science from the University of Ibadan in 1995 and a master’s degree in business administration (finance and accounting) from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom (2011).
Yemisi Edun, Managing Director, FCMB
Mrs Yemisi Edun is the Managing Director of First City Monument Bank (FCMB).
Mrs Edun, a former Senior Manager for Akintola Williams & Co. joined First City Monument Bank in 2000 where she served as Vice President and Senior Vice President for the nank. In July 2021, she was appointed as the managing director of First City Monument Bank (FCMB).
Edun obtained a degree in Chemistry from the University of Ile-Ife and a master’s degree in international accounting and Finance, from the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom.
She is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and a CFA charter holder.
She is also an associate member of the of Chartered Institute of Stock brokers; An Associate Member of the Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, A member of Information Systems Audit and Control.
She joined FCMB in the year 2000 as Divisional Head of Internal Audit and Control before assuming the role of Chief officer of the bank.
