First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Nigeria’s premier and leading financial inclusion services provider, today announced the appointment of Olusegun Alebiosu, Oluwatosin Adewuyi, and Ini Ebong to the FirstBank board as Executive Directors. These appointments are subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Before this appointment, Olusegun Alebiosu served as Group Executive and the Chief Risk Officer of FirstBank Group, having joined the Bank in September 2016 from African Development Bank Group (ADB) where he was the Chief Credit Officer.
Through the last five years of having the FirstBank’s Risk directorate under his watch, there has been a risk management transformation at the Bank, significant improvement of the Bank’s credit underwriting process with vintage NPL ratio less than 1%, reduction of our NPL ratio to sub – 7% levels, significant recoveries, exemplary franchise protection and excellent stakeholder management.
In addition to Mr. Alebiosu’s role as Executive Director of the Risk Directorate, he is also the Executive Compliance Officer with the overarching responsibility of ensuring the Bank complies with extant rules and regulations.
The newly appointed Executive Director is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA), an Associate of the Nigerian Institute of Management, a Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, and a member of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs.
Segun Alebiosu obtained his first degree in Industrial Relations & Personnel Management and a Masters Degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the University of Lagos. He has attended numerous courses and training programmes on leadership, enterprise risk management, compliance, assets and liability management, trade, exports, sustainability banking.
Oluwatosin Adewuyi was the Group Executive, Corporate Banking with the responsibility of overseeing the Bank’s corporate and transaction banking businesses, following the exit of the previous Executive Director.
Mr. Adewuyi’s designation elevation to Executive Director stems from the exemplary role and impact he has had on the Bank’s corporate banking franchise with significant growth in assets and net revenue achieved. He was until recently, Executive Director Business Development at the Group’s flagship subsidiary; FBNBank UK where he played a pivotal role in the execution of the Bank’s new strategy and rebuilding the loan portfolio to align more closely with the new risk appetite defined by the parent.
He is an international banker with over 20 years of experience, covering sub-Saharan Africa. Tosin joined FirstBank from J.P Morgan where he was a Managing Director and had worked at Standard Bank, London for about five years and qualified as a Certified Chartered Accountant during the four years he worked at KPMG.
Mr. Adewuyi has a BA (Hons) in Economics and Accountancy from the University of Manchester. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), an Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria and was on the 2012 Power List – Business, Finance and IT as one of the top 100 influential black people in the UK.
Preceding Ini Ebong’s ascension to the Executive Director, Treasury & International Banking, he served as the Group Executive in charge of the Treasury and International Banking Group at the Bank. Under Ini’s leadership, the legacy treasury service of the Bank has been transformed into a morenimble function; market-facing and revenue-focused business, consistent with that obtainable with global operational expectations, thus improving its contribution to our Profit Before Tax (PBT). Since 2019 when the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) subsidiaries were brought under his supervision, the franchise has grown consistently with SSA subsidiaries now contributing more than 20% of the FirstBank Group’s revenue.
Mr. Ebong’s career journey included serving Head of African Fixed Income and Local Markets Trading for Renaissance Capital; and Head Sales and Trading at Citibank Nigeria where he also doubled as the Country Treasurer. Throughout his career in financial services spanning almost thirty years, Ini has had extensive experience in investment banking, financial markets, equity and debt capital markets businesses, with work experience that covers trading, treasury, balance sheet management and finance.
Ini is a qualified architect with a BSc and MSc in Architecture from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). He has also attended numerous training courses during his career covering leadership. executive management techniques, advanced credit risk management, country risk assessment, crises management, treasury trading and balance sheet management, and market risk assessment in various locations worldwide.
Speaking on the appointments, Dr Adesola Adeduntan, Chief Executive Officer, FirstBank of Nigeria Limited said, “on behalf of the board, management and staff of FirstBank, we are delighted with these appointments as it reflects the vibrancy of our internal recruitment, ascension and succession planning.
Olusegun, Oluwatosin and Ini have through the years contributed in no small measure to growth of the Bank. Indeed, they have played a pivotal role in the Group’s continued commitment to nation-building and the key milestones we have achieved thus far such as staying at the forefront in driving financial inclusion and empowering SMEs.”
About FirstBank
First Bank of Nigeria Limited (FirstBank) is the premier Bank in West Africa and the leading financial inclusion services provider in Nigeria for over 127 years.
With over 750 business locations and over 150,000 Banking Agents spread across 99% of the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria, FirstBank provides a comprehensive range of retail and corporate financial services to serve its over 30 million customers. The Bank has an international presence through its subsidiaries, FBN Bank (UK) Limited in London and Paris, FBNBank in the Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea, Sierra-Leone and Senegal, as well as a Representative Office in Beijing.
The Bank has been handy at promoting digital payment in the country and has issued over 10million cards, the first bank to achieve such a milestone in the country. FirstBank’s cashless transaction drive extends to having more than 10million people on its USSD Quick Banking service through the nationally renowned *894# Banking code and over 4.5 million people on FirstMobile platform.
Since its establishment in 1894, FirstBank has consistently built relationships with customers focusing on the fundamentals of good corporate governance, strong liquidity, optimised risk management and leadership. Over the years, the Bank has led the financing of private investment in infrastructure development in the Nigerian economy by playing key roles in the Federal Government’s privatisation and commercialisation schemes. With its global reach, FirstBank provides prospective investors wishing to explore the vast business opportunities that are available in Nigeria, an internationally competitive world-class brand and a credible financial partner.
FirstBank has been named “Most Valuable Bank Brand in Nigeria” six times in a row (2011 – 2016) by the globally renowned “The Banker Magazine” of the Financial Times Group; “Best Retail Bank in Nigeria” for seven consecutive years (2011 – 2017) by the Asian Banker International Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards and “Best Bank in Nigeria” by Global Finance for 15 years. Our brand purpose is always to put customers, partners and stakeholders at the heart of our business, even as we standardise customer experience and excellence in financial solutions across sub-Saharan Africa, in consonance with our brand vision “To be the partner of the first choice in building your future”. Our brand promise is always to deliver the ultimate “gold standard” of value and excellence. This commitment is anchored on our inherent values of passion, partnership and people, to position You First in every respect.
Folake Ani-Mumuney
Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications
