Istanbul — Ecobank has been named African Bank of the Year at the 2009 African Banker Awards.
Ecobank won the award at this year’s ceremony held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey on October 6. The award ceremony took place alongside the 2009 World Bank Group/IMF Annual Meetings in Istanbul, and was attended by African bankers, finance ministers, central bank governors and officials of multilateral development institutions among other guests.
Receiving the award on behalf of his institution, Ecobank Group Chief Executive Arnold Ekpe said, “On behalf of the 11,000 staff of the Ecobank Group in 28 countries across the continent, I am delighted to accept this award in recognition of their hard work and continued dedication to Africa. I also want to recognize our alliance partner, Nedbank, for their impressive showing tonight, as well as other banks who have distinguished themselves in providing banking services to the people of Africa. Together, we can all make a positive impact on the economic growth of this continent.”
Commenting on the resilience of many banks through the global financial and economic crisis, Omar Ben Yedder, Publisher of African Banker magazine, said, “Luck favours the prepared. Whereas banks and financial institutions of yester-years in Africa would have previously yielded and vanished in such turmoil, the banks of today with stronger capital bases and stronger regulatory bodies have suffered severe challenges, but on the whole managed to withstand these external shocks. This is undoubtedly through strong leadership, vision and sustained reform undertaken by many of the winners and nominees present here today.”
Ecobank was one of several corporate sponsors of this year’s event, which was organised by African Banker magazine and IC Events in partnership with BusinessinAfrica Events.
About Ecobank (www.ecobank.com)
Incorporated in Lome, Togo, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) is the parent company of the leading independent regional banking group in Africa. It currently operates in 28 African countries, namely: Benin, Burkina-Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Uganda and Zambia. The group is also represented in France through its affiliate EBI S.A. in Paris. ETI also has a presence in Tanzania and in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where it holds licenses but is not yet operational.
ETI is listed on the stock exchanges in Lagos, Accra and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) - the BRVM. The Group is owned by more than 180,000 local and international institutional and individual shareholders. It has over 11,000 employees from 29 different countries in over 700 branches. Ecobank is a full-service bank providing wholesale, retail, investment and transaction banking services and products to governments, financial institutions, multinationals, international organizations, medium, small and micro businesses and individuals.
