Femi Otedola: Congratulations Mr. Chairman

It was Ebenezer Obey that sang “Board member, Board member, Board member” in the 80s and that was what came to mind the moment the announcement of Mr. Otedola as the new Chairman of the humongous FBN Group hit the airwaves.

Funnily, I had engaged its Group Managing Director, the very handsome Nnamdi Okonkwo the other day, to better explain to me what this group structure meant. Banks very recently have adopted the Group structure which in my naïve eyes allowed them to hold on to power even after their prescribed tenor.

But as Nnamdi explained, FBN Group was of international standard as it met both in structure and operations worldclass requirements for the Institution. As he explained, the group only had a supervisory role to play with its own Board and not being involved in the day-to-day running of the bank. The bank only sends in periodic reports and they in turn look through and make sure that all rules are being followed to the latter.

It is this structure that Mr. Otedola has emerged as chairman. In recent years, Mr. Otedola has built a reputation of being a Mr. Fix It. Buying into funny firms and insisting on corporate governance which in turn would impact on the profitability and making him the torch bearer of investors. It is no wonder that he is a major market mover as everybody including experienced traders now watch his every move before they take positions in the market.

I personally really think that his appointment or is it election will go a long way to further securing FBN group as the leading player in its space and also as the major partner in our push for national economic salvation.

Congrats sir and where is the party? Don’t do anything behind me o, there will be fight o, I have said my own.