PUNCH
The First Bank of Nigeria Holdings has appointed Nigerian billionaire and businessman, Femi Otedola, as the new chairman of its board of directors.
Otedola, who recently expressed his excitement about his return to the Forbes African Billionaires list after a seven-year hiatus, takes over from the outgoing Chairman of the board, Alhaji Ahmad Abdullahi.
Sharing a picture of the announcement on his Instagram page, he wrote, “Interesting”, and added smiley and dollar emojis.”
The 61-year-old entrepreneur currently sits at number 20 on the list with a net worth of $1.1bn.
According to Forbes, the wealth of the 2024 list of 20 billionaires rose to $82.4bn from last year’s $81.5bn, partly as a result of Otedola’s return. Before then, the last time the business mogul appeared on the Forbes Africa list was in 2017. This year, he took the 20th spot on the list.
The decision of the financial institution followed a recent meeting of the board held today.
The bank disclosed this in a corporate filing on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), notifying investors of the new development.
This appointment, according to the bank, takes effect today, January 31, 2024.
Recall that in July 2023, Wole Olanipekun & Co, the legal representatives of Dr Oba Otudeko, former chairman of the group asked FBN Holdings to disregard a petition by Ecobank’s lawyers, demanding a rejection of 4.7 billion shares purchased by the entrepreneur.
