Nigerian legendary banker, Angola’s finance minister get top African awards

BY ROSEMARY IWUALA

Atedo Peterside, the Nigerian legendary investment banker, who founded Stanbic IBTC, which he then led into a merger with South Africa’s Standard Bank; and two powerful African women, Vera Songwe, United Nations under-secretary-general and executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, and Vera Esperanca dos Santos Daves de Sousa, Angola’s finance minister, clinched the most prestigious awards: The lifetime achievement awards, the African Banker Icon and Finance Minister of the year at the 16th edition of the African Banker Awards Gala Ceremony, which took place at the Kempinski Hotel, in Accra, Ghana.

The African Banker Awards are held annually during the annual meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and organised by the African Banker magazine and IC Events in co-operations with BusinessinAfrica Events, to celebrate excellence and best practices in African banking, its organisers explained in a statement.

With the high patronage of the African Development Bank (AfDB), being part of the programme of the AfDB’s annual meetings, over 300 banking and financial services professionals joined the Gala Ceremony to discover the winners of the African Bankers Awards 2022, the organisers further said.

Recognising the personalities and banks that are driving Africa’s rapidly transforming financial sector, the African Banker Awards bring together industry leaders from Africa and the world to celebrate the achievements of those who are driving growth and development and creating new economic opportunities for the citizens and communities all over the continent; and inspire new generations of bankers who are shaping Africa’s future said the organisers.

Vera Songwe, United Nations under-secretary-general and executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, who was awarded the African Banker Icon award for her tireless work in providing governments with the fiscal ammunition to deal with the impact of COVID-19, in her acceptance speech, said, “It really was a moment to demonstrate that Africa is resilient. I came to the table with an understanding of the menu of solutions because in 2008 I was on the other side [of the table] when SDRs were handed out to European economies [to stave off a financial crisis].

“What we are focusing on at the ECA is prosperity. The ingredients are there for success; there is latent innovation; what we need to do is provide the infrastructure; the soft infrastructure, the hard infrastructure and the human capital to deliver the end game which is jobs, prosperity and a better life for all,” she said.

Atedo Peterside, legendary Nigerian banker, and founder of IBTC Bank, which he merged with Stanbic 15 years ago, won the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to banking. “The success of IBTC,” he said, “was built on everyone buying into the mission of the bank and shared values and culture.”

Vera Esperanca dos Santos Daves de Sousa, Angola’s Finance Minister, was recognized as the Finance Minister of the Year for her stand-out work in restoring stability and market confidence to her country.

Other recognition at the event went to Michael Atingi-Ego, deputy central bank governor, Uganda, who won Central Bank Governor of the year. Earlier this year, his predecessor, Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, Uganda economist and governor of the central bank of Uganda, passed away, leaving a void which will not be easily filled. However, the Central Bank of Uganda was one of the star performers this year, having managed to stave off inflation and achieve currency stability in an extremely challenging environment.

Benedict Oramah won African Banker of the year for his work in growing Afreximbank’s balance sheet and making it one of the leading banks in terms of its response to covid-19 by providing much-needed liquidity and solutions when it came to vaccine acquisition, as well as its lead role in helping create the conditions so that businesses can take advantage of the AfCFTA once all negotiations are finalised.

Omar Ben Yeddar, chair, African Banker Awards Organising Committees and Publisher, African Banker magazine, said that it is time Africa focused its effort on strengthening domestic capabilities to finance growth.

“We need strong institutions and we need to start with our commercial and development banks. If we have learnt anything from the past two years, and even more so these last two months, it is that we need to achieve financial sovereignty if we are to own our growth agenda,” he said.

Elsewhere, the winner of the African Bank of the year, for the second year running, was Standard Bank Group, the continent’s largest bank by assets and also by tier one of the capital.

This year, the awards were sponsored by the African Guarantee Fund, Bank of Industry (Nigeria) and the Trade Development Bank as well as Access Bank. The award patron is the African Development Bank, whose annual meetings come to a close this May ending in celebration of 50 years of the African Development Fund, which is undergoing a new replenishment round.