The board of Zenith Bank Plc, on Monday announced the appointment of Ebenezer Onyeagwu as Group Managing Director with effect from June 1, 2019, subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Onyeagwu, one of two deputy managing directors, replaces Peter Amangbo, whose five-year tenure expires on May 31, 2019, in what is said to be consistent with the bank’s tradition and succession strategy of grooming leaders from within.
A statement by the Michael Osilama Otu, the Company Secretary and General Counsel, through the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), explained that the income chief executive was appointed DMD on October 28, 2016 and has almost 30 years cognate banking experience, 17 of which has been with Zenith Bank.
Recall that following the 2014 appointment of current CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, then GMD of Zenith Bank, Onyeagwu, was one of those tipped as a likely successor at the bank, just as Amangbo, following the appointment of Udom Emmanuel, another top contender, as a commissioner and later Secretary to the Akwa Ibom State Government. Emmanuel later became governor of the state and was in March elected for a second term of four years.
The CEO has cognate banking industry experience and worked as a credit analyst in the defunct Financial Merchant Bank Limited, before joining Citizens International Bank Limited where he held several management positions ranging from branch head, Warri branch and Ikoyi branch respectively.
He joined Zenith Bank Plc in 2002 as a Senior Manager in the Internal Control and Audit Group and has served in various capacities as Assistant General Manager in charge of coordination of strategies for Business Development and Relationship Management for Ikeja Branch and General Manager, zonal head, Ikeja zone, responsible for the supervision of 25 branches of the bank from Ikeja, Lagos, to Otta, Ogun State.
Until his appointment, he was the general manager in charge of Commercial Banking Group as well as Ikeja zone of the bank.
A graduate of accounting and 2003 fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), he is an alumnus of the University of Oxford, England, where he obtained a postgraduate Diploma in Financial Strategy and certificate in Macroeconomics. He is also a graduate of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. (Wharton Executive Education), Columbia Business School, Columbia University, United States of America, the Harvard Business School and the Lagos Business School of the Pan African University, Nigeria.