Elumelu, Ovia others named top 10 living legends of Nigerian banking

…As Herbert Wigwe emerges Man of the year.

 

In continuation of its ground breaking publications, Nigeria’s high rising publication, The Top10 Magazine has released the list of its Top 10 living legends of Nigerian banking evolution. The list is contained in the latest edition of the magazine which is dedicated to the ten leading personalities that shaped the evolution of Nigerian banking.

Topping the list are Otumba Subomi Balogun, Founder of FCMB Group, Jim Ovia, Chairman of Zenith Bank, Tony Elumelu, Chairman of UBA, Fola Adeola, Co-founder of Guaranty Trust Bank and Pascal Dozie, Founder of Diamond Bank. Others are Atedo Peterside, Chairman of Stanbic IBTC Holdings, Chukwuma Soludo and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former CBN Governors, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, former Managing Director of Access Bank and Adesola Akinfemiwa, former Managing Director of Skye Bank.

In a release by the publishers of the magazine, Toni Iji “Our objective is to identify and celebrate the 10 leading personalities that shaped Nigerian banking evolution and our main criterion for selection is traceable and subsisting legacies of the personalities; those that were able to leave indelible legacies that outlived the various transformation stages of the Nigerian banking sector”. The magazine stated that, “Working in the banking industry, rising to the top of your career and retire with all the beautiful retirement benefits was not our idea of a banking legend we set out to identify. Our target is to identify those who made the difference in shaping the evolution of the industry and left legacies that are still visible in today’s Nigerian banking system in Nigeria. Going through our top 10 list, each of them have their legacies very much alive in today’s banking industry in Nigeria in spite of the many transformation stages the industry went through. In arriving at the list, our research team carried out a thorough research to identify those who did not just pass through the Nigerian banking landscape, but those who were able to leave something visible for the industry”.

It stated that the essence of the work is to use the stories of the personalities who shaped evolution of the Nigerian banking sector to provoke a new thinking among the stakeholders on how the Nigerian banking system of today can be positioned to produce more great bankers in the mold of Subomi Balogun & co. It is also designed to stimulate the interest of our new generation of bankers to draw lessons from the legends and aspire for greatness as the future Jim Ovia, Tony Elumelu, Fola Adeola, Atedo Peterside etc,for sustainable growth and development of Nigerian banking.

In the same vein, the magazine has named Herbert Wigwe, managing director and chief executive officer of Access Bank Nigeria Plc as its Man of the year 2016. It stated that the selection of Wigwe as its Man of the year 2016 is in recognition of the sterling performance of the bank under Wigwe since he assumed the leadership of the bank, with many local and international awards to show for its performance. The magazine stated that the official investiture of Wigwe will come up some time in February 2017 at an evening with Nigerian banking legends, an event that will bring together legends of Nigerian banking, their families, associates, bank CEOs, Captains of industries etc. it stated that Wigwe’s official investiture will be the highlight of the event.