Business
FIDELITY BANK ANNOUNCES BOARD RETIREMENTS AND NEW APPOINTMENTS
Fidelity Bank Plc wishes to announce new Board appointments in place of some of its outgoing Directors, who recently successfully completed their tenure on the Board in accordance with the Bank’s internal governance policies.
Mrs. Aku Odinkemelu, Executive Director, South Directorate, who was appointed to the Board on August 4, 2014, will be retiring by December 31, 2020. As Executive Director, Aku played a defining role as a member of the transformation team in Fidelity Bank over the last 6 plus years.
Her responsibilities covered the Commercial, SME, Consumer and Public Sector businesses of Fidelity Bank in the South East and South-South Regions of Nigeria and she provided leadership for 90 business offices within the 11 States under her purview, with her Directorate accounting for 31% of deposits, and 21% of Loans. In addition, the South Directorate under her supervision generated the highest PBT in the bank over the last 5 years 2015 – 2019, contributing over 23% of the total bank’s profit over the period.
Chief Charles Umolu, Non-Executive Director, completed his tenure and retired from the Board on December 16, 2020. He served on the Board Risk, Credit, Finance & General Purpose, Audit and Corporate Governance Committees and chaired the Board Credit Committee until he retired. Mr. Michael Okeke, also a Non-Executive Director, successfully completed his tenure and retired on December 18, 2020. He was a member of various Board Committees including the Board Corporate Governance Committee, which he chaired from October 2018 to December 2019. Another Non- Executive Director, Mr. Alex Ojukwu, will complete his tenure and retire by December 31, 2020. He currently serves on the Board Credit, Risk, Audit and Corporate Governance Committees and chairs the Board Risk Committee.
The Board expresses its profound appreciation to the outgoing Executive and Non-Executive Directors for their impressive contributions to the growth and development of the Bank. “Fidelity Bank is privileged to have benefited from the combined experience and expertise of these very accomplished Lady and Gentlemen. We thank them for their service to the Bank and wish them the very best in their future endeavors” said Mr. Mustafa Chike-Obi, Chairman, Fidelity Bank Plc.
In place of the retired and outgoing Non-Executive Directors, the Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Mrs. Amaka Theodora Onwughalu, Mr. Nelson Chidozie Nweke and Mr. Chinedu Eric Okeke as Non-Executive Directors. The appointments of Mrs. Onwughalu and Mr. Nweke have been approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) whilst that of Mr. Okeke is awaiting CBN approval.
Mrs. Amaka Onwughalu has over 30 years’ banking experience including over 10 years in Executive Management in various financial institutions, with proven expertise across diverse segments including Commercial Banking, Retail Banking, Treasury Management, Banking Operations and Corporate Banking. She served in executive management positions in different institutions and was the former Group Managing Director of legacy Mainstreet Bank Limited where she led the successful execution of a seamless integration of the bank with Skye Bank Plc where she served as Deputy Managing Director until her retirement in July 2016.
She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Blueshield Financial Services Limited and holds a BSc Degree in Economics from the University of Buckingham, an MSc Degree in Corporate Governance from Leeds Metropolitan University, United Kingdom and an MBA from the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She gained further exposure and training at the Executive Business School, INSEAD, France; IMD Business School, Lausanne, Switzerland; Judge Business School, University of Cambridge; and Columbia Business School, USA.
Mrs. Onwughalu is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Internal Auditors of Nigeria; a Fellow of the Institute of Credit Administration (ICA); a Member of the Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM); an Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN); and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors (IoD). She is passionate about mentoring the Girl Child and committed to supporting women entrepreneurs/professionals to contribute their quota to stimulating economic development in Nigeria. She is a Paul Harris Fellow and recipient of various prestigious awards including the National Merit Award for Accountability and Transparency (NMAT), the Award of Excellence and Distinction for Financial Management (AEDFM) and the Vocational Service Award (VSA) from the Rotary Club, Enugu.
Mr. Nelson Nweke, currently serves as the Managing Director of Neilville Nigeria Limited and had an extensive career in the financial services sector, rising to the position of Executive Director at legacy Intercontinental Bank Plc. His banking industry experience covers Operations, Public Sector, Corporate Services and Human Resources Administration. He holds a Bsc. in Political Science and an Msc. in Industrial and Labour Relations, both from the University of Ibadan and has attended various executive development programmes at world class business schools including INSEAD, France; IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland; and Harvard Business School amongst others.
Mr. Nweke is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Member Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) and Nigeria Institute of Management (NIM). Prior to joining the Board of Fidelity Bank, Mr. Nelson Nweke had previously served as a Non-Executive Director of Premium Pension Limited and was a member of the Governing Council of Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency between 2014 and 2018. He is presently an Independent Non-Executive Director at Berger Paints PLC.
Mr. Chinedu Eric Okeke is the Managing Director of Azura Power West Africa Limited, an infrastructure development and operating company with special focus on emerging markets in Africa, including Nigeria. Prior to joining Azura in 2014, Mr. Okeke had a stellar career spanning over nineteen years in a succession of blue-chip companies including Guinness Nigeria Plc, Lafarge Plc, Schlumberger Oilfield Services, and General Electric (GE). His areas of interest and specialization across geographies (Nigeria, France, South Africa, Vietnam and Pakistan), covers Technology, Power, Corporate Strategy, Finance, Market Analysis and International Development.
Mr. Okeke has held executive and senior management positions in various climes, with direct responsibility for teams of diverse and multicultural professionals and demonstrated ability to develop and maintain strategic client relationships and deliver quality results under complex conditions. He holds a B.Eng. Degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and an MBA from Imperial College, London. He has attended executive training programmes at various premier institutions including Gordon Institute of Business Science, South Africa; INSEAD, France; Graduate School of Business, Stanford, USA, College of Management, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA and GE John F. Welch Leadership Development Centre, USA.
The Board is pleased with the appointments and confident that the new Directors will bring their considerable experience to bear in the bank’s growth trajectory. “We are very delighted to welcome the newly appointed Directors to the Fidelity family. These appointments end the on-going board realignment, occasioned by the retirements that had to happen, in line with our governance policies. We look forward to leveraging on the multi-disciplinary experiences of Amaka, Nelson and Chinedu in executing the next growth phase of Fidelity Bank”, stated Chike-Obi.
NNPCL and Corruption’s Final Throes
By Pius Olasanmi
In the twilight of the Obasanjo administration, when Nigerians were still capable of being outraged, when Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of refineries was a buzzword that still held some mysticism to bamboozle citizens, during a conversation, a certain man said something profound. The man said, “As a businessman, if I were the owner of these refineries, knowing that they are three decades old, I would take the last money I have, hire bulldozers, raze them to the ground, and obtain loans to build new ones.”
When we pressed him further on why he would engage in such waste, he explained that repairing the refineries is the real waste. He explained that even if the TAM were honestly carried out, a thirty-year-old refinery would never compete favourably with a new one that would integrate contemporary technology. Operating at its best, such a refinery would never be comparatively more efficient. It is therefore pointless to have spent another one naira on the refineries at that point.
A few months later, I had a conversation with a then-lawmaker on an entirely different matter. I mentioned that the National Assembly has failed by not crafting legislation that would criminalise and punish public office holders who foist wrong decisions on the country. The logic: a public office holder need not steal to be punished, wrong decisions should attract penalties for an office holder who opts for the worst of all options when there are less injurious ones.
These established premises speak to the ongoing nauseating efforts at revisionism by those who wrecked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its previous iteration, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Notably, this campaign to rewrite history is traceable to Engineer Mele Kolo Kyari, the disgraced immediate past Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL and his hirelings. They have suffocated the news and the public opinion space with even more lies than they spun while in office.
The Saint Kyari campaign is anchored on convincing Nigerians that the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna Refineries were fully functional when he was booted out of office. So brazen is the campaign that one of its talking heads challenged the group chief executive officer (GCEO), Engr. Bayo Ojulari, to “inform Nigerians categorically what happened to the functioning refineries he inherited from his predecessor, Engr. Mele Kyari.” The effrontery.
We have not forgotten so soon the charade that followed the baffling claim that Nigeria has spent $2.8 billion on the repair of the refineries, while they are not churning out even a single litre of refined product among them. Saint Kyari and his goons played all manner of tricks, all of which embarrassed President Bola Tinubu, who had counted on ticking off the return to productivity of the refineries as part of his achievements, only to realise that he was deceived into celebrating phantoms. Tragic.
Lest we forget, 200 trucks were arranged as props in a well-directed video clip to celebrate the re-streaming of the Port Harcourt Refinery. The disappointment. Nigerians were to learn from several reports that the Port Harcourt refinery was not producing and was instead using old, stored petroleum products to load trucks. Worse still, the Kyari crew was passing off sanction-tainted Russian-sourced crude oil refined in Malta as locally refined products. More insult was piled on the assault on our collective sensibility with the lies that the Port Harcourt Refinery exported semi-finished products. Brazen.
Meanwhile, Kyari and his hirelings called those who pointed out or protested these glaring scams all manner of names. They hid behind industry technicalities and jargon to create the impression that those of us who knew Nigerians were being robbed did not understand what we were saying. The point remains that a $2.8 billion investment can potentially build a refinery with a capacity of around 100,000 barrels per day (bpd). Of course, the actual capacity of such a refinery will depend on various factors, including the complexity of the refinery, the technology used, and the location. That is the amount that Kyari’s regime at the NNPCL took and did not give Nigerians refined products.
Fast forward to Kyari’s sack and the appointment of Engineer Bayo Ojulari, who has demonstrated that things can indeed be done differently. Kyari’s exit was expectedly followed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) going after him and his associates. The extent of the theft is better understood against the backdrop of N80 billion being found in the bank account of one of his associates. They went on the run.
Perhaps because the EFCC was biding its time on securing international warrants for the arrests of these characters on the lam, they have become emboldened. They have decided to fight back and rewrite the story of their participation in the greatest fraud against Nigerians. Engineer Ojulari’s renewed mindset, which is entrenching a semblance of the transparency Nigerians demand, became their natural target. The demons that once roamed around the corporation came out with malevolence. They started spinning stories of corruption to tarnish the incumbent who refused to hide their crimes. The objective: bring Ojulari down. But alas, he is winning the war as it stands.
His innocence is proven, and it is glaring that those who want him out are mere charlatans who can no longer ply their corrupt wares because of the impact of the new reforms. Corruption in the NNPCL is in its final throes. The fake news being unleashed against the incumbent leadership is akin to corruption’s last kicks as reforms in the sector strangulate it and its practitioners. The reforms must take place in the NNPCL, whether the industry demons like it or not.
As a parting shot, Kyari and his associates would do well to prepare their defence. In addition to accounting for the $2.8 billion they laundered in the name of repairing the moribund refineries, they must also answer for the poor decision to fix that which is irretrievably broken. Awarding contracts for Turn Around Maintenance of 59-year-old refineries that a right-thinking person had suggested should be demolished almost twenty years ago, when they were only 30 years old, is criminal. Trying to deceive Nigerians that the fake repairs worked is treason.
Olasanmi is a public affairs analyst writing from Lagos.
GRANDIS 5STAR LUXURY APARTMENT & SUITES SET TO REDEFINE LIVING IN VICTORIA ISLAND
Set to Rise elegantly against the Lagos skyline, is the Grandis 5Star Luxury Apartment & Suites. According to Adejuwon Ademola, The General Manager of the Development company, it is more than just a residential building
“it’s a lifestyle statement. Standing 17 floors high in the heart of Victoria Island, this revolutionary masterpiece of modern architecture will offer a panoramic 360° view of Eko Atlantic, Victoria Island, and Ikoyi, transforming every apartment into an exclusive penthouse experience for the world’s most discerning elite.”
Developed by Dumarco Construction Limited, a globally acclaimed company with decades of delivering complex, high-value projects in the highly regulated petroleum, oil, and gas industries, Grandis 5Star brings unmatched international safety standards, uncompromising quality, and timeless elegance into Nigeria’s luxury property market.
> “When you live in Grandis, you’re not just buying a home—you’re investing in peace of mind, world-class safety, and an effortless luxury experience that will remain pristine for decades,” says Adejuwon A. Ademola, General Manager of Dumarco Construction Limited.
The Gold Standard in Safety and Quality
Dumarco’s roots in the oil and gas sector mean the company operates to some of the strictest safety protocols in the world. Every stage—from conceptualization, design, construction, to long-term maintenance—follows internationally accepted procedures and quality assurance measures. Cutting corners is simply not in Dumarco’s vocabulary.
> “In the oil and gas industry, there’s no room for compromise. We’ve brought that same discipline and zero-tolerance for mediocrity into property development,” says Ademola. “That’s why Grandis will be one of the safest and most enduring residential developments in Nigeria.”
To ensure transparency and prevent (project complacency), Dumarco deliberately separates the developer, contractor, and consultant roles, engaging only the most competent professionals in each respective field. Dumarco’s project team includes globally recognized contractors such as Julius Berger, Cappa & D’Alberto, and Elalan, Migliore Construczione & Tecniche (MC&T) and their partners VENCO IMTIAZ CONTRACTING COMPANY (VICC) based in Dubai, UAE, Business Contracting Limited, alongside leading consultants like Morgan Omanitan & Abe, LAMBERT, and James Cubitt.
Grandis – Investments, appreciation, returns and profitability
Our selection process for the location of the project alone was pains-taking and completely thorough scientific process. Top professional companies were employed to conduct a scientific data acquisition and analytical survey of the entire Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki and Eko Atlantic before a project site is selected. Analyzing and acquiring areas developmental charts and trends, studying and gathering historical and present sale prices, rental charge and occupancy rates over a 50 year period from every individual street before the selection of the location of any of our developments especially true for the Grandis Project
He adds,
“Our clients and residents can be rest assured that the location of Grandis has been scientifically proven through all existing data to provide our clients with a 100% occupancy rate, highest developmental location, highest rental income and investment returns. ”
The Grandis Experience
Located minutes away from international corporate headquarters, embassies, and landmarks such as Eko Hotel, Radisson Blu, and the Radisson Red, Grandis offers unmatched convenience for professionals, diplomats, and high-net-worth individuals. Every residence is designed for both indulgence and efficiency, with high-grade finishes, smart-home systems, and private amenities that ensure seamless living.
From sunrise over the Atlantic to the glittering Lagos night skyline, residents will enjoy uninterrupted luxury, supported by discreet and highly trained staff, advanced security systems, and a design that prioritizes comfort and privacy.
> “We designed Grandis for people who want everything—security, elegance, convenience, and the assurance that their home will look as spectacular in 20 years as it does on day one,” Ademola notes.
A Legacy That Lasts
With its combination of visionary architecture, peerless safety, and meticulous maintenance planning, Grandis is built to remain iconic for generations. Thanks to Dumarco’s meticulous approach, the building’s service charges are expected to remain low while its value and appeal continue to appreciate over time.
In a market often marred by shortcuts and substandard practices, Mr Ademola says
Grandis stands as a beacon of what luxury living should be—safe, spectacular, and built to last.
“Grandis 5Star Luxury Apartment & Suites — Where safety meets sophistication, and every detail is designed for a life well-lived.”
He added
Website -www.dumarcoltd.com
Project website – www.26idowutaylor.com
Email [email protected]
Tel / WhatsApp +234 9077777883
GM – Adejuwon A. Ademola
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