President Muhammadu Buhari, on Tuesday at the President villa, called on Ecobank Transnational Incorporated to cement its legacy as a bank operating in Nigeria by instituting “a special fund to develop agriculture,” and in the process help to transform West Africa’s economic fortunes.
Speaking when the ETI board, led by its chairman, Emmanuel Ikhazoboh paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja, Buhari stressed his administration’s commitment to the goals of securing the country, inclusive economic growth and fighting corruption.
Nigeria, he noted, was in a unique position as the most populous and resource-rich nation on the African continent, adding that the resources would be harnessed and properly managed, to engender a prosperous and peaceful country.
“If assets and resources available to Nigeria were properly managed, she would be prosperous and peaceful. But the poverty and insecurity we are experiencing today are results of decades of neglect and resource mismanagement,” he noted.
Buhari restated his government’s determination to reverse the trend of squander-mania and mismanagement, “we have made progress in some areas such as agriculture,” commending Ecobank for being active in promoting financial inclusion, noting that it is key to the government’s diversification agenda.
On requests by the bank for the decongestion of Apapa ports, and rebuilding of the transnational Lagos-Badagry-Seme road, Buhari responded: “We are aware and are working in all those areas, and by the grace of God, you will start seeing results during my second term in office.”
Ikazoboh who was accompanied by the Group Chief Executive, Ade Ayeyemi and Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Patrick Akinwuntan, told State House Correspondents that the visit was to “congratulate the President on his re-election and to wish him God’s guidance and spiritual protection to continue to lead this nation because we believe that he has the interest of the country at heart and if Nigeria succeeds, Africa has succeeded and being the leader of Nigeria, he is the leader of Africa. Since we are the Pan-African bank, we needed to come and see the leader of Africa.”
He noted that the Ecobank Group “with a larger African footprint than any other bank in the world operating in West, Central, East and Southern Africa is the only bank that spans 36 African countries, but operates a truly integrated African network. That is One unified integrated Ecobank Mobile Banking App, that works seamlessly across all 33 operating countries in Africa; One Ecobank Omni and Omnilite serving all Multinationals and SMEs in Africa; One Rapidtransfer app that breaks down country borders and allows the diaspora community send money directly to their loved ones, instantly and affordably across Africa; One Ecobank Online Banking platform that you can access easily whether you are in Abuja or Kinshasha; Ecobank’s unique and largest pan-African platform is designed to help unlock the opportunities of the continent, for the continent, through standardization, fuelling regional integration, and trade and investment across borders”
Also, speaking, Ayeyemi said the team told the President “some of the challenges Nigeria and Africa are facing. Like I said earlier on if Nigeria is sorted out, Africa is sorted out, and some of these challenges are infrastructure, of which they are working on assiduously. Also, we are talking about the Seme road because of West African trade route which we think should be given some priority. And to thank him also for the steps he is taking to clear the Apapa Port because that is where trade is coming into Nigeria.”
The major problem confronting the banks today, he told the President, “are the debtors. We have a number of debtors both corporate and individuals, and we need to put in place a framework to ensure that people do not just take a loan and not pay pack. Banks are under pressure because if you have a lot of unpaid loans, it means you don’t have enough money to also support other borrowings or other small and medium enterprises.”
On what the bank was doing to support SMEs in the country, Ikazoboh said, “we’ve improved the capital of Ecobank in Nigeria. In the last six months, we have brought in about $150 million all to drive borrowings and supporting the small and medium enterprises.”

Photo caption: From left, Managing Director, Ecobank Nigeria, Patrick Akinwuntan; Non-Executive Director ETI, Bashir Maman Ifo; Group Company Secretary, Cisse Madibinet; Group Chief Executive Officer, ETI, Ade Ayeyemi; Non-Executive Director ETI, Tei Mante;Chairman, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), Emmanuel Ikazoboh;President Muhammadu Buhari; Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari; Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele; Non Executive Directors of ETI Aasim Qureshi, David O’Sullivan and Mfundo Nkuhlu during a courtesy call by the Board of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated to the President at the State House, Abuja on Tuesday, May 28, 2019.