Ayeyemi: to head Ecobank

Pan-African bank Ecobank Transnational Incorporated has named Ade Ayeyemi as its new group chief executive.

Nigerian Ayeyemi, currently head of Citigroup’s sub-Saharan Africa division, will replace Ecobank CEO Albert Essien who is retiring at the end of June.

He will lead a bank headquartered in Togo that has operations in 36 African countries.

Citigroup had appointed Ayeyemi to head its Johannesburg-based sub-Saharan Africa division, in September 2013.

Ayeyemi has been with Citi for 27 years.

He was before then head of Citi Transaction Services in Africa before being appointed to head operations in Johannesburg.

•Albert Essien: retires in June

Earlier in his career, Ayeyemi held the position of Senior Country Operations Officer in Kenya and Regional Operations Head for East Africa from 1999. He joined Citibank Nigeria in Trade Operations in 1988 after a stint in Unilever Nigeria firstly as a management trainee and subsequently, an officer in the Finance Division.

At Citi, Ade became the Treasury Operations Head, Applications Development Head and subsequently the Technology Head in 1993. In 1995 he was appointed Senior Branch Operations Officer responsible for 13 branches as well as Senior Officer in charge of Technology.

Ade is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the Harvard Business School. He graduated from the University of London with a MSC, Financial Management.

He is also a Chartered Accountant and has a Bachelor of Science (Accounting) with First Class Honors in 1985 from the University of Ife, Nigeria.