Deputy Managing Director of First Bank steps down
By Olumide David
The Deputy Managing Director of First Bank, Mr. Gbenga Shobo has stepped down of the board with immediate effect.
According to a tweet by Proshare, Shobo’s resignation followed CBN’s review of the term limits of Bank Managing Directors, Managing Directors, Deputy Managing Directors, Executive Directors, and other Executives.
Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a circular last Friday, notifying banks of the new directives.
The guidelines among other conditions, stipulate that the tenure of Executive Directors(EDs), Deputy Managing Directors, (DMDs), and Managing Directors (MDs) shall be in accordance with the terms of their engagement approved by the Board of Directors subject to the maximum of ten (10) years.
The guidelines further stated that where an executive who is a DMD becomes the MD /CEO of a bank or any other DMB before the end of his/ her maximum tenure, the cumulative tenure of such shall not exceed twelve (12) years.
However, for an executive who becomes a DMD of a bank or any other DMB, his or her tenure as ED and DMD shall not exceed ten (10) years according to the Apex bank stated in the circular.
Further checks by Nigerian NewsDirect revealed that many prominent banks executives and non-executive board members are caught up in the web of the sudden regulatory guideline of the Apex bank.
Gbenga Shobo joined the board of the bank in 2012, before he was appointed Deputy Managing Director, he was the Executive Managing Director overseeing the Retail Banking/Public sector businesses in the Lagos and West Directorate and was hiterto the Executive Director overseeing the Retail business in the south Directorate.
Gbenga began his professional career with Coopers and Lybrand Charterd Accountant as an External Auditor and Tax Consultants.
Throughout his outstanding career, he became the Divisional Head of Corporate of MBC international bank Limited and Subsequently, the General Manager/Corporate and Commercial Banking of FBN (Merchant Bankers) Limited before joining the bank.
While, at First Bank, he has served as senior management roles at various times as the General Manager of products & channels group; Business Development Manager at Rivers and Bayelsa state and also head the position of Group Head, National Corporate.
Gbenga has over 30 years of work experience from reputation organisation out of which he has garnered more than 26 years in the Banking industry in Credit and Relationship Management; Products Development and Improvement; Treasury; Product sales and Banking Operations among others.
He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and an Aluminum of Kellogg School of Management and Harvard Business School.
Gbenga also holds a B.Sc. degree in Political Science from the University of Ife.
Furthermore, he has taken many courses and attended programmes in top rated business schools including the Warton School, (University of Pennsylvania) and Stanford University.
Gbenga is the first person to be appointed to the Position of the Deputy Managing Director of First bank in the Bank’s of over 120 years of history. A testament to his total commitment and professionalism.
He is happily married with children and loves reading, playing golf and lawn tennis.
