Ebenezer Kolawole has been named the Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer by the Unity Bank Plc Board.
His appointment follows the retirement of Mrs. Oluwatomi Somefun who has ended her stint as MD/CEO. After receiving the required permission from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the bank’s main regulator, the nomination was made public at its 18th Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was held in Lagos on Wednesday.
BrandSpur banking and finance news desk reports that with more than thirty years of expertise in the banking business, Mr. Kolawole is a seasoned and impeccable banker. In 1992, he started working in financial services at Caribbean Finance Limited in Kaduna, which is a Cayman Island branch of CFL.
After joining Ecobank, he worked in the operations and finance suites as well as other divisions inside the bank, eventually becoming the deputy financial controller. He relocated to Standard Trust Bank (STB), where he worked in the finance suite, operations suite, and regulatory risk management, among other important areas. He was also instrumental in the merger of STB and UBA. He was United Bank for Africa’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) following the merger.
Continuing, Kolawole joined Mainstreet Bank as Group Chief Financial Officer (GCFO) and spearheaded the bank’s transformation and rescue efforts. He briefly worked in a variety of corporate business development roles with Globacom, one of Nigeria’s top indigenous telecommunications companies.
However, in 2015, Kolawole became the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Unity Bank Plc. Later, in February 2018, he was named Executive Director to lead Finance, Operations, and Information Technology. In this post, he was instrumental in the Bank’s cost-cutting and strategic transformation efforts, which improved the Bank’s performance and viability in the market. Completing the Bank’s current corporate programs and other strategic business initiatives is his main responsibility, following the succession and business continuity plans of the organisation.
Kolawole graduated from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, with a First-Class (Hons) degree in accounting. He has taken part in several management and executive education courses at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, USA, and Columbia Business School in New York, USA.
In addition to being a member of the Institute of Directors, he is also an Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (HCIB), a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administration (FICA), an Associate Member of the Nigeria Institute of Management (AMNIM), and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA).
