Boardroom crisis rocks GTBank over Segun Agbaje’s successor as CEO

A seeming boardroom crisis that may rock Guaranty Trust Bank Plc (GTBank) to its foundation is currently brewing in the bank.

According to a recent report by BusinessLive, the internal unrest borders on the succession of the current managing director and chief executive of the bank, Mr. Segun Agbaje, whose tenure ends in June 2021.

According to inside sources, Agbaje is said to be backing two executive directors believed to be his close associates to succeed him as managing director and deputy managing director, ahead of other most qualified directors in the bank.

The source further divulged that the executive directors, Miriam Chidiebele Olusanya (Wholesale Banking Division) and Babajide Okuntola (Financial Technology Division), lack the adequate experience and technical skills to run the bank whose total assets and shareholders’ funds stood at ₦4.057trillion and ₦661.1 billion respectively at end of the first quarter of 2020.

While Okuntola is being positioned as the head-honcho, Olusanya is said to be favoured by Agbaje as deputy managing director of the bank.

The decision, it was learnt, did not go down well with other members of the board who opposed the emergence of the two EDs on the premise that there were more senior and experienced executive directors in the financial institution.

The development was said to have led to a heated argument between Agbaje and other members of the board at a meeting held on Wednesday July 22, 2020 at the bank’s headquarters situated at Plot 635, Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

 

The bank CEO said to be enjoying the blessings of the bank’s chairman, Osaretin Demuren, had insisted on his candidates.

Oyinade Adegite, Head, Communication and External Affairs Group of the bank could not respond to enquiries when contacted.