In less than two weeks away the leadership baton at Nigeria's premier financial institution, First Bank of Nigeria Plc, will change as Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, executive director, Risk & Management Control, takes over from Jacobs Moyo Ajekigbe as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank effective January 1, 2009.

Ajekigbe will be retiring from the bank on December 31, 2008 after a meritorious career spanning over three decades in the bank.

The leadership change was actually announced earlier in the year and room was created to enable Sanusi undergo a period of tutelage under Ajekigbe so as to make the baton change seamless.

Ajekigbe's tenure has witnessed a plethora of laudable achievements. He has succeeded in growing all of the bank's financial performance indices from year to year.

In addition to initiating a record-making and highly successful hybrid offer, he has succeeded in making the bank the first Nigerian quoted company to hit the N1 trillion mark in market capitalisation.

Also, the First Bank group, under Ajekigbe's able leadership, now boasts of eight local subsidiaries (with another one in formation having been approved in principle by the Central Bank of Nigeria) and a full-fledged bank in the United Kingdom, FBN Bank (UK) Limited, a branch in Paris through FBN Bank (UK), with the strategic intent to spread across Europe, as well as a representative office in South Africa, with further application to set up in Asia under processing.