Ecobank's Chief Executive Officer Thierry Tanoh ordered to quit

AFRICA - Ecobank Transnational Inc.’s (ETI) biggest investor has again called for Chief Executive Officer Thierry Tanoh to quit after a shareholder meeting yesterday failed to resolve corporate governance issues according to CCTV News.

Investors of the South African Public Investment Corp., which owns more than 18 percent of Ecobank want the CEO to step down. They also agreed to retain the 12-person board but withdrew a motion to create a smaller interim grouping. And, shareholders unanimously approved a plan to improve corporate governance following recommendations by Nigeria’s SEC.

In August last year, Ecobank was investigated by Nigeria’s finance regulator after former Director of Finance Laurence do Rego told the SEC that Tanoh and former Chairman Kolapo Lawson planned to sell assets below market value. Do Rego said she was pressured to write off debts owed by a business headed by Lawson and manipulate the bank’s results. Both Tanoh and Lawson deny any wrongdoing.

Last month Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission told Ecobank that it had to reinstate the former finance director Laurence do Rego pending a probe into her allegations of corporate governance breaches, according to a spokesman for the SEC said. 

Founded in 1985, Ecobank operates in France and 35 African countries and has representative offices in Beijing, Dubai and London. Ecobank reported in October that profit increased 65 percent to $250 million in the nine months through September as its businesses in Nigeria and Ghana expanded.