ABOH, John O. - MD/CEO

John Aboh, a frontline banker and turn-around management expert, was appointed Managing Director/CEO of Oceanic Bank International Plc by the Central Bank of Nigeria on 14th August 2009.

Prior to this appointment, he has over 28 years built a legacy of professionalism and integrity that have brought him global acclaim in the financial services sector. He served as Executive Director, in charge of Banking Operations & Services with First Bank of Nigeria Plc up till 31st December 2008 when he retired from the Board of First Bank of Nigeria Plc after eight years of distinguished and meritorious services on the Board.

An astute banker with over 27 years of work experience, Aboh remains a leading light in Nigeria's financial services sector. In 16 out of those 27 years, John worked at senior management and Board of Directors' levels in large Nigerian banks with well defined organizational structures and strong corporate governance practices. At the height of Wema Bank Plc crisis in January 2008, John was drafted to the Bank as the Acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer by the Central Bank of Nigeria. He successfully stabilized the Bank and restored customer confidence within a very short period to the delight of Central Bank of Nigeria and other stakeholders of the Bank.

This achievement was attested to by a Letter of Commendation dated 19th September 2008 written to him by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria.

A strategist with strong quantitative and people management skills, John¿s background and experience includes development and implementation of new initiatives to upgrade banking operations and customer service quality, proactive formulation of strategies to entrench strong internal audit and controls systems, management of quality risk assets portfolio, large deposit base and formulation of strategies to support superior performance in Banking. John has in-depth knowledge of all facets of finance and Banking.

He has exceptional record of achievements in Banking Operations, International Trade Finance, Corporate Banking, Credits, Financial Management, Information Technology and Projects Implementation. He is widely respected in the industry for his unparalleled commitment to good corporate governance and best practices.

John has participated in various local and international courses, workshops, seminars and programmes, some of which are: Developing Management Skills (Citibank, Nigeria - 1988), Bourse Game - Foreign Exchange and Money Market Course (Citibank, Nigeria - 1989), International Trade Seminar (Citibank, NY USA - 1989), Managing People (Citibank, London, UK - 1990), Structured Trade Finance (Citibank, Athens, Greece - 1991), Managing Productivity (Citibank, Athens, Greece - 1993), International Trade Finance (Euromoney, London, UK - 1988), Advanced Management Programme (Harvard Business School, Boston USA - 2003), Implementing Strategy (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA - 2004) and Making Boards More Effective (Harvard Business School, Boston USA - 2007).

John holds a B.Sc - Finance with second class upper division [University of Nigeria, Nsukka - 1980], MBA - Finance and Accounts [University of Jos - 1985], AMP Harvard University [Boston - 2003]. A key contributor to policy formulation and execution strategies in his various employments, John is an Alumnus of the prestigious Harvard Business School and has exhibited strong leadership, general management and project implementation skills focused on delivering value to key stakeholders.

Mr John Aboh,a committed family man, hails from Agila in Ado Local Government Area of Benue State. His Marriage to Victoria Ocha Aboh(Nee Onazi) is blessed with children.

NAIWO, Chief A. O. - Director

Chief Naiwo is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Britain and a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Secretaries of Britain. He started his career at Barclays Bank of West Africa now First Bank of Nigeria Plc, before moving to Arthur Andersen and Goad Chandler Limited where he was the Company Secretary.

He joined the Ibru Organization as Management Accountant and held the positions of Finance Manager, Finance Director and Finance Coordinator. Chief Naiwo is Chairman, Molusi Community Bank, Ijebu Igbo, Chairman Sackol Chemicals Nigeria Limited and a director in other companies.

OMORUYI, Anthony Esq - Director

Anthony Omoruyi studied Law at the University of London after which he was called to the Nigerian Bar. A fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, London, he holds a certificate in Advance Management, Public Administration and Financial Management Practices from Royal Institute of Public Administration of London.

Omoruyi served in the Central Bank of Nigeria in various capacities for 32 years rising to become the Secretary to the Board of Central Bank, a position he held until his retirement. He is now in private legal practice.

OKORO, Simpson E. - Director

Mr. Okoro holds a M.Sc. Degree in Production Engineering from the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He worked in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from 1972 to 1976. Then moved to R. T. Briscoe where he became Group Product Manager from 1976 to 1985. He was at Stern Nigeria Properties Limited from 1985 to 1995 when he joined Bouygues Nigeria Limited.

He left Bouygues in 1999 and joined BFCL Assets and Securities Limited, where he is the General Manager/CEO.

MUSA, Ambassador Bunu Sheriff - Director

Ambassador Bunu Sheriff graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Civil Engineering from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and obtained a Masters of Science degree from the University of Southampton.

He started his Civil Service Career at the Ministry of Works. At various times he held ministerial portfolios in the ministries of Industries, Mines and Power, Water Resources, Employment, Labour and Productivity. He was appointed Nigeria¿s Ambassador to France in 1977, a position held till 1999. A Chartered Engineer, he is a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.

IBRU, Oboden Valentine - Director

Mr. Oboden Ibru holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the International Graduate School of Management (IIESE), Navara, Spain. He has a B.Sc (Hons.) Finance and B.Sc. (Hons.) Statistics from University of San Francisco, California.

He has acquired over 14 years of banking experience working in various strategic capacities including Treasury, Branch Operations & Management, Domestic and International Operations as well as Corporate Finance. Oboden is currently the Managing Director of Oceanic Capital.

STAUFFACHER, Werner - Director

Werner Stauffacher, a Swiss national, holds a Higher Technical Diploma in Aluminium Technology from Bale, Switzerland.

He started his career in Swiss Aluminium in 1970. He joined Alumaco Nigeria Plc in 1971 and left in 1976 to co-establish Metalum Limited as the pioneer Managing Director. He served as a Council member of the Manufacturers' Association of Nigeria for four years. Mr. Stauffacher is also a director in other companies.

UKIRI, Ovie - Director

Mr. Ukiri holds a Bachelor of Social Science in Law and Economics from Keele University, and LLM from Kings College, London University, qualifying from the Nigerian Law School in 1987.

He is a member of the Association of International Young Lawyers, the Nigerian Bar Association and the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria.

At Ajumogobia and Okeke, the law firm where he has been a partner since 1999, Mr. Ukiri is responsible for supervising various teams within the firm that provide legal advice on tax and corporate matters; oil and gas; capital markets; banking and finance and intellectual property. He is also responsible for providing legal advice on foreign investment in Nigeria, and in particular foreign investment opportunities in the oil and gas and telecommunications sectors of the economy.

AHMADU, Ambassador Hamzat (The Wali of Sokoto), CON - Director

Ambassador Hamzat Ahmadu an alumnus of the Prestigious Oxford University, England also holds an Honorary Degree of Doctor Laws by City University Los Angeles (CULA) and Doctor of Letters degree from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. He started his civil service career with the Provincial Administration of the government of Nigeria in 1950.He was first secretary and Counsellor, Nigerian Embassy, Bonn, West Germany. He also served as Principal Secretary to Heads of state (Presidents); Aguiyi Ironsi, General Yakubu Gowon and Murtala Muhammad. He has served in various diplomatic mission sand Ambassadors to various countries around the globe. He is currently the Chairman: Board of Directors MTN Foundation, GTE

CHUPHI, Ngalaah - Director

He obtained a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Queens University, Ontario Canada and an MBA from Pepperdine University, California, USA. He has extensive experience in the areas of Private Equity, Project Finance, Management Consulting and Sales & Marketing from over 17 years of working and serving as a Consultant to World class Institutions like International Finance Corporation (IFC), The World Bank Group, Deloitte & Touche Management Consultants Ltd, Kenya amongst others. He is currently the Executive Director of Ethos Private Equity Limited, South Africa

ADEWALE, Mrs. Oyinkan - Executive Director/Chief Financial Officer

After obtaining a degree in French from the University of Ibadan in 1979, Oyinkan Adewale trained with Coopers & Lybrand (now part of PriceWaterhouseCoopers) and qualified as a Chartered Accountant, ACA, in May 1984. She has been a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria for over 15 years.
She joined Nigeria International Bank / Citigroup in 1989 as Deputy Financial Controller and rose to the position of Citigroup Chief Financial Officer for the West African Cluster, with responsibility for 7 countries (Cote d´Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Ghana and Nigeria). She was appointed to the Board of Directors as an Executive Director in February 1998. She is one of a limited number of MIS experts in Nigeria.

In 2004, Mrs. Adewale co-founded SIAO, Nigeria´s number 1 indigenous accounting firm and no. 5 overall accounting firm in the country. She is credited with originating the SIAO M&A financial due diligence programme that won the firm in its first year, an unprecedented 14 bank due diligence and 2 financial advisory mandates during the (Soludo) bank consolidation programme.

Also at SIAO, she designed and managed the audit of the 8-year accounts of the 57 Local Governments and Local Government Development Areas of Lagos State. Driven by a commitment to professional excellence, she set up SIAO´s training school, thus making the firm one in a very limited number of indigenous firms to invest in human capital development.

From April 2006 to March 2007, Mrs. Adewale was jointly engaged by FBN Plc and ETI, the two banking giants, as Business Combination Manager for the FBN/ETI merger. Mrs. Adewale joined Renaissance Group in April 2007 as Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer for Africa.

She was Executive Secretary to Renaissance´s Africa Advisory Board and a member of its Africa Management Board. She is a member of the Board of Management and Hon Treasurer, St Saviour´s School, Ikoyi, Lagos. Mrs Adewale was educated at St Mary´s Private School, Lagos, Holy Child College, Lagos, St George´s School in Switzerland and University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

DOSUMU, Mrs. Mofoluke B. - Executive Director, Operations and Resources

A professional banker with over 23 years experience (treasury, foreign operations and branch operations), Mrs. Dosumu was the Treasurer, First Bank of Nigeria Plc before joining Oceanic Bank in October 2009. Mrs. Dosumu is skilled in asset and liability management where she has provided direction on the combination and quality of assets & liability to ensure optimal return on investment while mitigating against the various risks. She started her banking career with United Bank for Africa (UBA) in 1985. She joined FSB International Bank (now part of Fidelity Bank) in 1986 as a management trainee and rose through the ranks before leaving for Equatorial Trust Bank (ETB) in 1990 where she also excelled and left the bank in 2001 as Deputy General Manger (Operations and Treasury). Dosumu joined First Bank in 2001 as a Principal Manager and rose to become a deputy general manager (DGM) in 2004. In 2008, she was appointed as the Treasurer of the bank. A chartered accountant and graduate of Accounting, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ife 1985, Dosumu has attended numerous courses in Wharton, University of Pennsylvania; Harvard Business School, and Stanford Business School, among others.

BALARABE, Mohammed - Executive Director, North

Mohammed Balarabe holds a B.A.(Hons) in Accounting & Finance from Nottingham Trent University (UK) and an M. Sc. Finance from the University of Lagos. He is an associate of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers. His banking career spans over 20 years.
He started in merchant banking, with Continental Merchant Bank and subsequently New Africa Merchant Bank. He was General Manager / Chief Executive of Newdevco Finance Services Company Limited (the Stockbroking subsidiary of New Africa Merchant Bank) before joining UBA in 1995.

While at UBA, Mohammed held various responsibilities in Corporate, Commercial, Public Sector and Retail Banking. His immediate past assignment at UBA, was as the General Manager / Regional Head, North West Bank; coordinating the bank´s Retail, Commercial, Local Corporates and Public Sector business across the 50 branches of the North West Bank. Prior to that, he was Regional Head for the North East Bank. He has attended several Banking, Finance and Management courses both locally and abroad.

AJAGBAWA, Henry O. - Executive Director, South

Until his recent appointment, Henry Ajagbawa was the Regional Bank Head, SouthBank UBA Plc. He has worked in various capacities including Transaction Banking, Retail Banking, Corporate Banking, Special Projects, etc and in different geographies in Nigeria; North, West, East, Lagos and South in the UBA Group spanning over eleven years.

Henry had worked in three other Banks before joining UBA including EcoBank where his banking career started. He also had a brief stint at Equitorial Trust Bank as Executive Director, Retail Banking.
Before joining the Banking Industry in 1991, Henry had worked with Unilever International Audit, Lagos and UAC Plc for about 5 years where his professional career started, giving him a cross functional experience in manufacturing, commerce, services, audit and banking. Henry obtained a BSc. and MSc. in Economics from the University of Lagos and he's a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.

Henry is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, International Institute of Management Development, IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland and AMP INSEAD. He is married with children and his hobbies are lawn tennis and football.