Adeola, Sterling Bank GMD not stepping down soon

Contrary to reports making the rounds in the media that the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (GMD/CEO) of Sterling Bank Plc, Mr Razak Adeyemi Adeola is about to retire from the services of the One-Customer Bank, a source close to the lender has said that Adeola has until 2019 before his retirement.

Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued a circular in 2010, stating that the MDs/CEOs of Nigerian banks shall no longer spend more than 10 years in office as part of efforts to sanitise the banking sector.

One year after this circular, a number of banks including Zenith, UBA and Skye lost their MDs/CEOs to the policy.

According to our findings, Mr Adeola, a lawyer, former lecturer, consultant and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (FCIBN), commenced his banking career with Citibank in 1988, serving as Chief Legal Counsel & Company Secretary; later as Executive Director, Public Sector & Infrastructure Banking; and subsequently the Commercial Banking Segment.

He left Citibank in 2003 to pursue the turnaround project of Trust Bank of Africa Limited (TBA), serving as the Deputy Managing Director between 2003 and 2005. Upon the consolidation of TBA into Sterling Bank in December 2005, Mr Adeola assumed the role of Executive Director, Corporate and Commercial Banking and remained in that capacity until December 2007 when he was appointed as Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Bank.

According to our source, those who are counting ten years for Mr Adeola based on his appointment in 2007 are mistaken as he only served on acting capacity, after the retirement of erstwhile MD/CEO, Mr Babatunde Dabiri, between 2007and 2009. He was ratified as substantive MD/CEO by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2009.

He added that Adeola’s tenure as MD/CEO actually commenced in 2009 and would terminate in December 2019 when he completes his ten year term.

Azubike Nnadozie