The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved the appointment of Ahmad Abdullahi as a non-executive Director of FBN Holding Plc and Chairman of the company to replace Remi Balalola who resigned on Friday.
The new appointment was made known in a statement released by CBN’s Director, Corporate Communications, Osita Nwanisobi.
The apex bank, in the statement, said it had been duly notified of the resignation of Babalola, as Chairman of the company against the backdrop of the contest by some significant shareholders for control of First Bank Holding Plc.
The CBN congratulated Abdullahi on his appointment, describing the resignation of Babalola as highly “regrettable”, especially given the fact that CBN’s regulatory interventions had made a positive impact and increased the attractiveness of the company to both local and foreign investors.
The bank acknowledged the measured achievements recorded by the company under Babalola’s watch, and thanked him for his service, while wishing him well in his future endeavours.
According to the statement, the regulatory measures taken by the CBN have been yielding the expected results in terms of overhaul of corporate governance practices, restoration of confidence in the bank’s brand, increased transparency and due process in transactions as well as improved financial performance.
It added that the apex bank, in line with its statutory mandate, remained committed to ensuring transparent governance practices at the bank and the continued independence of the chairman and other persons holding key governance positions.
The CBN had in earlier in April 2021, taken a decisive regulatory step to restructure the management of the First Bank to Nigeria, which led to the dissolution of the boards of both the First Bank Ltd and FBN Holdco Plc and the appointment of a new board which included the appointment of Babalola as Chairman of First Bank Holding Plc.
The new Chairman, Abdullahi is an economist and thorough-bred professional with long years of experience in academia, banking supervision and financial regulation, retiring as Director of Banking Supervision, CBN in February 2020.
He is also an expert in bank crisis resolution, and also serves on the boards of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), FMDQ, NDIC & AMCON.
