By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)- Francois Koumoin, the president of the commercial court in Abidjan has ordered pan-African lender, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated to pay Thierry Tanoh its former chief executive officer (CEO) the sum of 7 billion CFA Francs ($12.3 million), according to a Bloomberg report.
In March 2014, the pan-African lender announced Tanoh stepped down from his position effective March 12, 2014 following regulatory concerns which centred on poor corporate governance issues and fraud practices on the part of the bank’s management. Albert Essien, Tanoh’s deputy replaced him as CEO.
The report said Ecobank considers the decision “unfortunate and unfair” and the amount “excessive,” and will appeal against it, quoting Richard Uku, a spokesman for the company.
Uku said the bank has argued that any legal proceedings should take place in the United Kingdom (U.K) or at an international tribunal, since the employment contract was under U.K. law.
He disclosed that a separate lawsuit for unfair dismissal is under way in Togo.
Ecobank’s stocks are traded in Ghana, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire.
At the end of trading on the Nigerian bourse on Thursday, share price of the bank lost 0.90 kobo to 14.34 naira from 14.44 naira; declining 0.62 percent.
