Kelechi Deca Wrote: Banks and huge CEO bonuses ! Almost every month, in the last two years, workers in the Nigerian banking system are shown the door. And in most cases, it is those in the lower rung of the ladder. Often given as reason is unproductivity, which simply means that they are not meeting up with targets. The term targets have become so demonised by the Nigerian banking system that even Groundnut sellers know what it means to meet up with targets. I have always asked why the junior officers are the ones that are always sacked for not meeting their targets, while their managers receive a pat on the back through huge bonuses. If there are weak chains that failed to produce why cant their head take the guillotine, why is it always the small fries that are roasted instead of the tigers. I was chatting one category A, Nigerian banker on the sidelines of the Awards Night on Saturday 12th October at the iconic Willard Hotel Washington DC where Sanusi bagged yet another Award? as the Best Central Banker in Sub Sahara Africa. While the merry makers were busy inside, I took time to look around this historic edifice( Willard). It is a must see for any voyageur because no other hotel in the USA has played more political and historic roles in the shaping of the US as Willard. Infact, walking round the hotel, you will see desks marked as, Lincoln sat here in so so date....it is called the most celebrated historic Washington DC hotel, in more than 150 years. It has hosted almost every U.S. president since Franklin Pierce in 1853. On August 28, 1963, the Reverend Martin Luther King finished his famous “I Have A Dream” speech while a guest at the Willard. Other notable guests have included Charles Dickens, Buffalo Bill, David Lloyd George, P.T. Barnum, Lord and Lady Napper, and countless others. Walt Whitman mentioned the hotel in his works; and Mark Twain penned two books here in the early 1900s. Throughout the ages, no phrase has raised eyebrows like “I’m staying at the Willard.” That was why I found walking around its classic lobby more interesting that the Sanusi award. Then out of the blues, I asked my banker acquaintance about the Ecobank scandal, and if Kolapo Lawson heeded the call by the founder of the Bank to resign his position as Chairman of the pan African Bank?, I was equally naively shocked that the handsome CEO of Ecobank Transnational (ETI), Thierry Tanoh, was taking home $1.14m bonus a year.Hmmmmmm, but the shocker was when my banker friend told me how much his Nigerian counterparts whose banks are a fraction of Ecobank take home annually. Almost 4 times more than the $1.4 million. One of the CEOs of a very reputable Bank in Nigeria even got a skyscrapper very close to Eko Hotel Roundabout area of Victoria Island just for closing a deal. A house whose market value is over N5 billion,I heard. And I also heard so many many things happening in that sector. But if Ms do Rego was not sacked would she have opened up on the insider dealings within the Bank, and how they cook up figures to deceive us all. Thats how they make the billions they declare every year.The same reason that got Mrs Ibru and co into trouble was what Ecobank through its Chairman Kolapo Lawson connived with the CEO to do. Why did it take the shit hitting the fan for Mr Lawson to start paying off his huge indebtedness to the bank? I do not like the way this case was handled in a hush hush manner with Mr Lawson and Mr Thanor walking off so easily,it goes to show how inadequate our laws are especially the issue of trans-boarder regulation. First it took a letter from the sacked head of finance to the Nigerian Stock Exchange to cause the initial havoc, meaning that without the NSE, other regulatory bodies in the over 34 countries the bank ply its trade are toothless.She also said she resisted attempts to sell off non-core assets on the cheap, and questioned the manner in which the chief executives bonus had been increased. It is shocking that the CEO would want to raise his bonus by $935,967 above what it would have been under his contract, for a period when he had not yet been formally confirmed as chief executive. Though the Bank has a solid reputation built by Mr Arnold Ekpe who was CEO for close to two decades gaining presence in 34 African countries, and assets worth in excess of $20bn. But since the change of baton, there has been one issue or another.It could be recalled that the CBN in April questioned the fitness of Mr Kolapo Lawson as Chairman, given what it called his huge outstanding non-performing facilities. The honorary president and founder of Ecobank Transnational has called on Kolapo Lawson to stand down as chairman amid continuing divisions over alleged mismanagement at the most geographically diverse pan-African bank. Gervais Koffi Djondo, the Togolese businessman who helped to found the bank 25 years ago and is also the Chairman of ASKY airlines was Ecobanks longest- serving chairman, he wrote to the board calling on members to act urgently to save the group’s hard won reputation. The intervention of the octogenarian honorary president in the saga carries weight because of his role in founding the bank and seeing it through difficult early years alongside fellow founder Adeyemi Lawson, the father of the existing chairman. People familiar with the matter said his letter would prompt an open discussion among board members on whether Mr Lawson should resign. “Our institution is at risk and we must take urgent steps to stop the current crisis, prevent any further damage to the bank and reassure our shareholders, regulators, customers and employees,” Mr Djondo wrote in his message to the board, “the current situation has made it imperative for the chairman to step down immediately.” Back to reality in Nigeria, I have tried every known means in journalism to find out how much bank CEOs take home pay. Every trick I know of has hit a brick wall, reason most of them and their Executive Directors collect from both sides, as directors and as also staff. They have never cut down on their pay packages, yet when they think of downsizing, it is the small fries that pay.
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 19:02:49 +0000
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