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Aig-Imoukhuede: The Last CEO Brand Standing
- By Ikem Okuhu
- Published March 22nd, 2010
- BrandWorld
- Unrated
AIGBOJE Aig-Imoukhuede, Managing Director, Access Bank Nigeria Plc must be a lonely man right now. His job as helmsman of Access Bank must be so boring that I can imagine him waking up in the morning and struggling to find motivation to go to work. Not that his job at the bank has been done and he is looking for new challenges but the environment he is “used” to working in has so changed that boredom sure must have set in.
Take a look at the Nigerian banking firmament at the moment and you will understand what I am saying here. If this is hard for you to do, then take a historical look down the years to July 2005 when Prof Chukwuma Soludo began his sojourn as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria with an announcement that triggered a flurry of activities which in a few months reduced the number of banks in Nigeria from 89 to 25.
Then, Aig, as he is fondly called by friends and associates had barely spent three years in a bank he and his friend, Herbert Wigwe had spearheaded its acquisition after resigning as Executive Director in Guaranty Trust Bank. Very few people gave Access Bank a chance to make it through the battle of survival that marked the consolidation era but Aig did and went ahead to build a bank that competed with the biggest and best in the industry.
Back to the present. Competition in the industry looks like dead. A few months ago, the CBN issued a mandate limiting the tenure of bank MDs in Nigeria to 10 years, a development that necessitated the notice of banking greats like Tony Elumelu of UBA, Jim Ovia of Zenith Bank and Sola Akinfeniwa of Skye Bank to offer to resign by July this year.
Prior to this development, the likes of Oceanic BAnk’s Cecilia Ibru, Bank PHB’s Francis Atuche and Intercontinental Bank’s Erastus Akingbola have been given the boot for alleged serial infractions and breaches of banking practice.
Can you now understand why Aig must be bored? In the years between 2005 and 2009, competition among these banks aforementioned has been stiff. It got to a point where people wondered if it was really business competition or personality and ego contest that was going on among these people. Situations often arose where three to four of these banks would co-sponsor one event, creating severe contests for the occupation of limited media space.
And Aig was no coward when it came to such contests. Working hard like a lion and determined to keep Access Bank in the front burner, this tall, amiable lawyer-turned banker succeeded where most would have chickened out, imposing himself as a heavyweight contender and in an era where the strengths of banks were measured by mind share and not really bottom line, Aig was a real champion.
I recall encountering him in Abuja during the launch of the Vision 2020 back in 2008. Although I was there on behalf of one of the banks, I could not miss the tall, smiling figure of this man, who, fully aware of his imposing presence, mingled freely to the fury of his rivals. The following morning, Aig was all the press, captured as he hugged one dignitary after another. Tall and athletic, he was immaculately turned out and looked much younger than his 41 years then. He had the knack of fixing you with his full attention such that everybody else seems to recede far into the background, yet he had an easy, graceful charm about him that made you feel at ease. And did these translate to success for Access Bank? Within five years of taking over as the helmsman at Access, he was able to grow the bank from a struggling brand to the top echelon, rolling out branches all over the nation and creating subsidiaries in other parts of West Africa.
Today, the story seems to have changed. Those whose competitive activities seemed to have fired him to relentlessness have all gone or are at the moment getting set to hand over. The way Aig was moving prior to the coming of the new dispensation in the country’s financial system that saw the ousting of several MDs, it was clear that what was driving most of the activities was not really the desire to grow the brand but the personality challenges among some high-riding CEOs.
So what happens to Aig when in July, the last vestiges of competition as he is used to are all gone and for good? Would Aig be able to tarry on in the coming environment? Would this herald an early retirement of a man known for his tireless desire for accomplishment? Would he find new reasons to stay longer in the new season where the persons of the CEOs are expected to fade into the background, behind the institutional brand?
The next few months will tell more clearly. But with an Executive Director in the person of Herbert Wigwe, who himself must be nursing an ambition for the office of CEO, Aig might just find good reason to join his (erstwhile) rivals, especially those who were trio who would in July make into retirement and not courtrooms.
Take a look at the Nigerian banking firmament at the moment and you will understand what I am saying here. If this is hard for you to do, then take a historical look down the years to July 2005 when Prof Chukwuma Soludo began his sojourn as the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria with an announcement that triggered a flurry of activities which in a few months reduced the number of banks in Nigeria from 89 to 25.
Then, Aig, as he is fondly called by friends and associates had barely spent three years in a bank he and his friend, Herbert Wigwe had spearheaded its acquisition after resigning as Executive Director in Guaranty Trust Bank. Very few people gave Access Bank a chance to make it through the battle of survival that marked the consolidation era but Aig did and went ahead to build a bank that competed with the biggest and best in the industry.
Back to the present. Competition in the industry looks like dead. A few months ago, the CBN issued a mandate limiting the tenure of bank MDs in Nigeria to 10 years, a development that necessitated the notice of banking greats like Tony Elumelu of UBA, Jim Ovia of Zenith Bank and Sola Akinfeniwa of Skye Bank to offer to resign by July this year.
Prior to this development, the likes of Oceanic BAnk’s Cecilia Ibru, Bank PHB’s Francis Atuche and Intercontinental Bank’s Erastus Akingbola have been given the boot for alleged serial infractions and breaches of banking practice.
Can you now understand why Aig must be bored? In the years between 2005 and 2009, competition among these banks aforementioned has been stiff. It got to a point where people wondered if it was really business competition or personality and ego contest that was going on among these people. Situations often arose where three to four of these banks would co-sponsor one event, creating severe contests for the occupation of limited media space.
And Aig was no coward when it came to such contests. Working hard like a lion and determined to keep Access Bank in the front burner, this tall, amiable lawyer-turned banker succeeded where most would have chickened out, imposing himself as a heavyweight contender and in an era where the strengths of banks were measured by mind share and not really bottom line, Aig was a real champion.
I recall encountering him in Abuja during the launch of the Vision 2020 back in 2008. Although I was there on behalf of one of the banks, I could not miss the tall, smiling figure of this man, who, fully aware of his imposing presence, mingled freely to the fury of his rivals. The following morning, Aig was all the press, captured as he hugged one dignitary after another. Tall and athletic, he was immaculately turned out and looked much younger than his 41 years then. He had the knack of fixing you with his full attention such that everybody else seems to recede far into the background, yet he had an easy, graceful charm about him that made you feel at ease. And did these translate to success for Access Bank? Within five years of taking over as the helmsman at Access, he was able to grow the bank from a struggling brand to the top echelon, rolling out branches all over the nation and creating subsidiaries in other parts of West Africa.
Today, the story seems to have changed. Those whose competitive activities seemed to have fired him to relentlessness have all gone or are at the moment getting set to hand over. The way Aig was moving prior to the coming of the new dispensation in the country’s financial system that saw the ousting of several MDs, it was clear that what was driving most of the activities was not really the desire to grow the brand but the personality challenges among some high-riding CEOs.
So what happens to Aig when in July, the last vestiges of competition as he is used to are all gone and for good? Would Aig be able to tarry on in the coming environment? Would this herald an early retirement of a man known for his tireless desire for accomplishment? Would he find new reasons to stay longer in the new season where the persons of the CEOs are expected to fade into the background, behind the institutional brand?
The next few months will tell more clearly. But with an Executive Director in the person of Herbert Wigwe, who himself must be nursing an ambition for the office of CEO, Aig might just find good reason to join his (erstwhile) rivals, especially those who were trio who would in July make into retirement and not courtrooms.
