Ecobank’s Okpanachi to become first CEO of Development Bank of Nigeria

12th April 2017 Steve Hoare

The Nigerian Ministry of Finance has announced Tony Okpanachi, the deputy chief executive of Ecobank Nigeria, will be the first chief executive officer of the newly-launched Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN).

Okpanachi will be joined by the bank’s new chief financial officer Ijeoma Ozulumba, who joins from Seplat Petroleum Development Company, where she was the corporate budget manager, and Olu Adegbola, who will act as chief risk officer from FBN Holdings.

“Our first priority will be to quickly sign up the Participating Financial Institutions that will on-lend to MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises). It is indeed a new dawn for MSMEs in Nigeria and I am quite excited about it,” the new CEO Okpanachi told Development Finance.

The management team was announced just one day after the new DFI was granted a licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The development bank has US$1.3 billion in seed money, with US$500 million borrowed from the World Bank, US$450 million from the African Development Bank, US$200 million from KfW and US$130 million from Agence Française de Développement.

Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun has said the Development Bank will provide loans to all sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, services and other industries not currently served by existing development banks, thereby filling an important gap in the provision of finance to MSMEs.

She said as a wholesale bank, the Bank will lend wholesale to Microfinance Banks, which will lend medium to long-term loans to MSMEs.

The Ministry also announced the Bank’s new board members. Shehu Yahaya, who was the interim managing director of DBN and a former executive director at AfDB, will be the Bank’s first Chairman. He will be joined on the board by the Managing Director and chief executive of Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, Uche Orji and Mohammed Kalif of the African Development Bank.

Independent directors of the DBN are former Group Managing Director and CEO of United Bank for Africa, Philips Oduoza, President and CEO of African Finance Corporation, Andrew Alli, chairman of FBN Merchant Bank, Bello Maccido, Founder and managing director, JNC International Limited, Clare Omatseye, and the managing director, CEO Excel Professional Service Limited, Oladimeji Alo.

 

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