Olufemi Adeyemi

Ebenezer Olufowose and Tunde Hassan-Odukale

FBN Holdings has announced that Mr. Tunde Hassan-Odukale has officially stepped down as Chairman of FirstBank of Nigeria Limited, following the expiration of his tenure.

This was contained in an official filing of the company, published on the stock exchange website.

His departure marks the end of a 12-year tenure on the board, adhering to the tenure guidelines set by the Central Bank of Nigeria for Non-Executive Directors.

A Non-executive Director of FirstBank Nigeria Limited, Ebenezer Olufowose, has been appointed to succeed Tunde Hassan-Odukale as the chairman of the bank.

According to a corporate filing on Thursday, the parent company of the bank, FBN Holdings informed the Nigerian Exchange Limited and the investing public of the change in leadership following the completion of Hassan-Odukale’s 12 years as a non-executive Director in line with Central Bank of Nigeria Corporate Governance Guidelines.

Olufowose, who is the Group Managing Director of First Ally Capital Limited, was appointed to the board of the bank on April 29, 2021. Before getting on the board of FirstBank, Olufowose was an Executive Director at Access Bank and Citibank Nigeria.

According to the profile of the new chairman, Olufowose has over 36 years of working in the financial services industry and brings skills from Corporate Finance, Project Finance and Investment Banking to the Board.

Olufowose is a first-class honours degree holder in Economics from the University of Lagos and holds an MA in International Economics from the University of Sussex, England.

He is an Alumnus of the Harvard Business School and the Lagos Business School, an Honorary Senior Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administration and a Fellow of the Association of Investment Advisers and Portfolio Managers.

This development comes weeks after Dr Adesola Adeduntan resigned as the Managing Director of FirstBank after nine years at the helm of affairs of the bank.

FirstBank has since appointed Olusegun Alebiosu as its Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer. Until this appointment, he was the Executive Director, Chief Risk Officer and Executive Compliance Officer, a position he held since January 2022.