By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Pan-African lender, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), parent company of the Ecobank Group said on Wednesday that three (3) directors of the bank namely Laurence do Rogo, Andre Siaka and Evelyn Tall Daouda has retired with effect from June 19, 2015.

The lender said Alain Francis Nkontchou was elected to the board as a director for a term of three (3) years, according to ETI in an issuer’s announcement with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

This is coming on the heels of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank held on 19 June 2015 at Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Other resolutions passed at the AGM includes the renewal of Bashir Ifo, a director (representing Ecowas Bank for Investment and Development, (EBID) after the completion of  his term of office and  for another three (3) years ending on the day of the general meeting that will approve the accounts for the 2017 financial year.

“The general meeting also noted and ratified the co-option of  Dolika Banda, Sheila Mmbijjewe and Graham Dempster (representing Nedbank Group Limited) as directors for a term of three (3) years ending on the day of the general meeting that will approve the accounts for the 2017 financial year,” the lender said.

Also, the appointment of the joint auditors, Akintola Williams Deloitte, Nigeria and Grant Thornton, Cote d’ivoire for a term of one (1) year ending on the day of the AGM that will approve the accounts for the 2015 financial year was approved.

A special Resolution was passed approving the issue of bonus of one (1) ordinary share for every fifteen (15) ordinary shares held on the date of the closure of register which was adjusted from 25th June 25, 2015 to July 22, 2015 to comply with the rules of Ghana Stock Exchange which requires 21 notice for closure of register from the date of the AGM.

Information obtained from the website of the Ecobank Group says that  Siaka was a director on the board of SA Brasseries du Cameroun (SABC). He was the CEO of SABC from 1988 to January 2014. He worked with SABC from 1977, rising from production engineer to plant manager, deputy regional manager, regional manager and deputy managing director. Before joining SABC, André Siaka worked with Société Générale in Paris from 1974 to 1976.

André was vice-chairman of the board from 2009 until he was made interim chairman in October 2013.

André Siaka is a member of the Financial Markets Commission and a director of Orange Cameroun and Chanas Assurances SA. He holds an engineering degree from École Polytechnique, Paris. André Siaka has recently been appointed as the Honorary Consul for the Monaco Principality in Douala.

ETI early January 2014 announced that Laurence Do Rego, its group executive director for Finance and Risk was no longer its employee.

She had been on suspension for several months following a series of controversies.

A terse statement by the bank’s group head of communications, Mwambu Wanendeya, read, “Ecobank Transnational Incorporated today announces that Mrs. Laurence do Rego, the Group Executive Director for Finance and Risk, is no longer an employee of the company.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had in August last year commenced an investigation into the bank’s alleged misstatement of its 2012 performance.

In her letter to SEC, do Rego claimed she had come under pressure to write off debts owed by ETI’s Chairman, Mr. Kolapo Lawson, and to manipulate the 2012 results.

She said she resisted the requests, opposed attempts to sell off non-core assets on the cheap, and questioned the manner in which the chief executive’s bonus had been increased.

Several investors and officials connected with the bank doubted that the measures went far enough to allay concerns among leading shareholders about the way the bank is being run.

Ecobank’s spokesman, Jeremy Reynolds, had said that Do Rego, who joined the lender 11 years ago, was suspended because she falsely claimed to be a qualified accountant, Reuters had reported.

Reynolds also said Do Rego had not responded to the bank’s invitation to meet the board of directors and substantiate her claims.

A few days after this statement, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) directed the pan-African bank to reverse the recent disengagement of Do Rego within seven (7) days “failing which the Commission would be compelled to exercise the powers conferred on it by the ISA 2007”.

In mid June 2013, the then GCEO of the pan-African bank, Thierry Tanoh sought and was granted permission/approval to ask  Do Rego an ED with the bank since 2010 to step down based on a lack of trust and a lack of confidence in her professional competence. On July 02, 2013, the GCEO reportedly met with Do Rego to request that she voluntarily resign which she objected to and subsequently challenged in a memo to all directors of the board where she sought protection from the GCEO’s position.

This prompted a board meeting in early August 2013 where in response to the demand by some directors that he substantiate his allegation of lack of professional competence, the GCEO made specific presentations describing questionable transactions involving Do Rego raised by, or arising from a 2012 CBN/NDIC inspection report that led him to question her credentials to manage the function; the follow-through investigation of which had revealed a damning misrepresentation of Do Rego’s affidavit-backed credentials. To manage issues, the board then resolved to suspend Do Rego with a view to converting the earlier termination of her employment into a dismissal should the findings be confirmed by its own internal review.

Immediately after this board meeting, Do Rego sent a letter to the SEC alleging that the chairman, Lawson and GCEO Tanoh were attempting to sell non-core assets at values below market, that both individuals ‘attempted’ to manipulate the 2012 results to enable the Group (ETI) to show a much better 2013 growth, and she questioned procedures around the approval of a substantial increase in Tanoh’s 2012 bonus (which he subsequently opted not to receive). She also alleged that she was asked to write off debts owed by a real estate company Lawson chairs.

The matter did not rest there, as unsavoury exchanges began to dominate both the local and international media; necessitating an intervention by the SEC in the corporate governance issues raised/reported.

On her part, ETI says Tall Daouda was deputy group CEO / group chief operating officer. Prior to that she was the executive director for Domestic Bank. She started her banking career in 1981 with Citibank in Dakar. She left Citibank to join Ecobank Mali as deputy managing director in 1998, and was made MD in 2000. She was later transferred to Ecobank Senegal as MD. She was appointed regional head of the Francophone West Africa Region in October 2005.

According to the pamn-Afrcan lender, Tall Daouda holds a Bachelor’s degree in English (Dakar) and a diploma in International Trade, Distribution and Marketing from the Ecole d’Administration et de Direction des Affaires, Paris.

“Evelyne Tall is a member of the Audit and Compliance Committee of the ETI Board,” the lender said in its official website.

Share price of ETI at the close of business on Wednesday at the Nigerian bourse declined 2.18 percent to N22.00 from N22.49 traded on Tuesday losing 0.49 kobo per share.