Ecobank

Ecobank, whose official name is Ecobank Transnational Inc. (ETI), is a pan-African banking conglomerate, with banking operations in 36 African countries. It is the leading independent regional banking group in West Africa and Central Africa, serving wholesale and retail customers. It also maintains subsidiaries in Eastern and Southern Africa. ETI has representative offices in Angola, China, Dubai, France, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Ecobank Transnational Inc.
Public Company
GSE: ETI
NSE: ETIT
BRVM: ETI
IndustryFinancial services
Founded1985
Headquarters2365, Boulevard du Mono, B.P.3261, Lomé, Togo[1]
Key people
Emmanuel Ikazoboh[2]
chairman
Ade Ayeyemi
group chief executive officer[3]
Products
Revenue
  • US$ 2.11 billion (2015)
  • US$ 2.28 billion (2014)
[4]
  • US$ 107 million (2015)
  • US$ 395 million (2014)
[4]
Total assets
  • US$ 23.6 billion (2015)
  • US$ 24.2 billion (2014)
[4]
Total equity
  • US$ 2.52 billion (2015)
  • US$ 2.66 billion (2014)
[4]
Number of employees
19,568 (2015)[4]
WebsiteHomepage

Overview

ETI is a large financial services provider with offices in 36 countries around the world, and presence in 36 sub-Saharan countries. As of December 2012, ETI's customer base was estimated at 13.7 million, with 9.6 million (70.2%), located in Nigeria, the continent's most populous nation.[5] ETI's branch network numbered 1,305, with 1,981 networked ATMs.

Group network

As of June 2014, Ecobank Transnational had banking operations in 36 African countries, with representative offices in Angola, Beijing, Dubai, Ethiopia, South Africa and the United Kingdom:[6]

An Ecobank office in Niamey, Niger

Ecobank Transnational has operational bank subsidiaries in the following countries, as of July 2013:

Africa
  • Ecoboank Angola - (Representative office in Luanda)
  • Ecobank Benin
  • Ecobank Burkina Faso
  • Ecobank Burundi
  • Ecobank Cameroon
  • Ecobank Cape Verde
  • Ecobank Central African Republic
  • Ecobank Chad
  • Ecobank Congo Brazzaville
  • Ecobank Côte d'Ivoire
  • Ecobank Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Ecobank Ethiopia - (Representative office in Addis Ababa)
  • Ecobank Equatorial Guinea
  • Ecobank Gabon
  • Ecobank Gambia
  • Ecobank Ghana
  • Ecobank Guinea
  • Ecobank Guinea-Bissau
  • Ecobank Kenya
  • Ecobank Liberia
  • Ecobank Malawi
  • Ecobank Mali
  • Ecobank Mozambique
  • Ecobank Niger
  • Ecobank Nigeria (includes Oceanic Bank)[7]
  • Ecobank Rwanda
  • Ecobank São Tomé and Príncipe
  • Ecobank Senegal
  • Ecobank Sierra Leone
  • Ecobank South Africa (Representative office in Johannesburg)
  • Ecobank South Sudan[8]
  • Ecobank Tanzania [9]
  • Ecobank Togo
  • Ecobank Uganda
  • Ecobank Zambia[10]
  • Ecobank Zimbabwe
Outside Africa

History

ETI, a public limited liability company, was established as a bank holding company in 1985 under a private sector initiative spearheaded by the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce and Industry, with the support of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In the early 1980s the banking industry in West Africa was dominated by foreign and state-owned banks. There were hardly any commercial banks in West Africa owned and managed by the African private sector. ETI was founded with the objective of filling this vacuum.

The Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce promoted and initiated a project for the creation of a private regional banking institution in West Africa. In 1984, Ecopromotions S.A. was incorporated. Its founding shareholders raised the seed capital for the feasibility studies and the promotional activities leading to the creation of ETI.

In October 1985, ETI was incorporated with an authorised capital of US$100 million. The initial paid up capital of US$32 million was raised from over 1,500 individuals and institutions from West African countries. The largest shareholder was the ECOWAS Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and Development (ECOWAS Fund), the development finance arm of ECOWAS. A Headquarters’ Agreement was signed with the government of Togo in 1985 which granted ETI the status of an international organisation with the rights and privileges necessary for it to operate as a regional institution, including the status of a non-resident financial institution.

ETI has two specialised subsidiaries: Ecobank Development Corporation (EDC) and eProcess International (eProcess). EDC was incorporated with a broad mandate to develop Ecobank’s investment banking and advisory businesses throughout the countries where Ecobank operates. EDC operates brokerage houses on all 3 stock exchanges in West Africa and has obtained licences to operate on the two stock exchanges in Central Africa: the Douala Stock Exchange in Cameroon and the Libreville Exchange in Gabon. The mandate of eProcess is to manage the Group’s information technology function with a view to ultimately centralising the Group’s middle and back office operations to improve efficiency, service standards and reduce costs.[11]

Governance lapses

Ecobank has been marred by several well publicized governance lapses:

The sacking and reinstatement of the CFO in 2014 after she alleged: "... Mrs. Do Rego sent a letter to the SEC alleging that the Chairman, Mr. Lawson and GCEO Mr.Tanoh were attempting to sell non-core assets at values below market, that both individuals ‘attempted’ to manipulate the 2012 results to enable the Group (ETI) to show a much better 2013 growth, and she questioned procedures around the approval of a substantial increase in Mr.Tanoh’s 2012 bonus (which he subsequently opted not to receive). She also alleged that she was asked to write off debts owed by a real estate company Mr. Lawson chairs..."[12]

The Chairman resigned but later sued Ecobank to force them to investigate the allegations backed by an confidential E&Y audit report on serious allegations of Fraud.

" As the Chairman of the Board at the time the EY investigation was commissioned, I instructed my lawyers to write a letter to the Board expressly warning them of the illegality of presenting these accounts to the shareholders without making full disclosure of the facts. This letter was delivered to board members on the 26th June 2014 (See Appendix 1). Unfortunately the letter was ignored by the Board of ETI and this obvious dereliction of duty continues to date"[13]

Ecobank then settled the matter with the chairman and absolved him of any wrongdoing.[14]

Subsidiaries

The Specialized subsidiary companies of Ecobank include the following: [15]

The Ecobank Nedbank alliance

With more than 1,500 branches in 35 countries, the Ecobank-Nedbank Alliance is the largest banking network in Africa. The alliance was formed in 2008 between the Ecobank Group and the Nedbank Group, one of South Africa's four largest financial services providers, with a growing footprint of operations across the Southern African Development Community.[16]

Ownership

The shares of Ecobank Transnational Inc., the parent company of Ecobank, are traded on three West African stock exchanges, namely: the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) and the BRVM stock exchange in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.[17] As of December 2014, the ten largest shareholders in Ecobank Transnational were as follows:[18]

Ecobank Transnational Inc Stock Ownership
RankName of OwnerPercentage Ownership
1Nedbank Group Limited20.7
2Qatar National Bank17.4
3Government Employees Pension Fund13.8
4IFC Capitalization (Equity) Fund, L.P5.4
5International Finance Corporation5.2
6Social Security and National Insurance Trust4.0
7IFC ALAC Holding Company II2.3
8JP Morgan Bank Luxemburg2.0
9Africa Capitalization Fund Ltd1.5
10B.I.D.C1.0
11Other Investors26.6
Total100.0
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See also

References
  1. "Ecobank Transnational Inc. - Company Snapshot". alacrastore.com.
  3. Bonarchis, Renee; Wallace, Paul (8 June 2015). "Citigroup Sub-Sahara CEO Quits After 27 Years to Run Ecobank". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  4. "Ecobank Group – Annual Report 2015" (PDF). Ecobank Group. 31 December 2015. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
  5. "December 2012 Financial Highlights" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 June 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  6. "allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Ecobank Increases Sub-Saharan Africa Offices to 35". allAfrica.com.
  7. "News and Events". ecobank.com. Archived from the original on 21 November 2011.
  8. "allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Ecobank Opens in South Sudan". allAfrica.com.
  9. Sebastian, Costantine (4 December 2009). "Tanzania: Pan-African Bank Set to Enter Local Market". The Citizen (Dar es Salaam). Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  10. Antersite. "African Financial Markets: Provider of African Business and Economy information and research". africanfinancialmarkets.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2011.
  11. "About Us". ecobank.com. Archived from the original on 31 January 2012.
  12. "SEC gives ETI Plc 7 days ultimatum to reverse sack of Do Rego". SEC gives ETI Plc 7 days ultimatum to reverse sack of Do Rego.
  13. "Who Owns Legacy Shares After $864m Write Off At Ecobank; Post Securities Fraud". Who Owns Legacy Shares After $864m Write Off At Ecobank; Post Securities Fraud.
  14. "EXCLUSIVE: Ecobank (ETI) absolves Kolapo Lawson of all allegations". EXCLUSIVE: Ecobank (ETI) absolves Kolapo Lawson of all allegations.
  15. "Ecobank Specialized Subsidiaries" (PDF).
  16. About The Ecobank-Nedbank Alliance Archived 20 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  17. "Ecobank". ecobank.com.
  18. "Ecobank Group – Annual Report 2014" (PDF). 31 December 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
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