It is a normal thing to associate a company’s name/reputation with the names of those in charge of administering its affairs, especially the Chairman and CEO. This is the case, whether a company is performing well or otherwise. Consequently, when Zenith Bank Plc recently released its third quarter 2018 financial results, Nairametrics was quick to associate the impressive result with the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Peter Amangbo.
Agreed, he is not the only one who worked towards actualising the recorded growth in the company. As a matter of fact, Mr. Amangbo might have even done the least strenuous work, for all we know. But he is the man in charge, the man with the strategy, the man tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that Zenith Bank Plc accomplishes every set goal, or at least most of it.
Mr. Peter Amangbo is our corporate personality for this week. As is our tradition here at Nairametrics, we have selected him based on the simple fact that he is an accomplished professional. In this article, we will avail you the opportunity to know more about him, especially how he rose steadily up the corporate ladder to become the head of one of Africa’s biggest banks.
Mr. Amangbo’s early days and academic background
Peter Amangbo studied Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the University of Benin. He graduated in 1988 with a B.Engr. degree. He is also an alumnus of the Warwick Business School where he studied for a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree, graduating in 1995. He has participated in the Advanced Management Programme at INSEAD and is also a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA).
Building his career over the years
Mr. Amangbo has many years of professional experience under his belt. Most of his years as a professional has been spent in the financial services sector, particularly in banking where he has garnered immense experience across such key areas as operations, investment banking, corporate finance, credit & marketing, business development, as well as financial control and strategic planning.
But before pursuing a career in banking, he worked as a Senior Consultant at PriceWaterHouseCoopers. His job entailed covering assignments in manufacturing, financial services and general commerce, but he only worked in the company for four years before joining Zenith Bank Plc in 1993.
Some of the key highlights of his career at Zenith Bank include his appointment as an Executive Director in 2005. Prior to his appointment as the bank’s Chief Executive Officer in June 2014, he had served as the company’s Head of corporate & retail banking, as well as a Zonal Head in Lagos.
Apart from his powerful position as the CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, he currently serves as the company’s Group Managing Director. He is also a Non-Executive Director at Zenith Securities Limited, which is a subsidiary of Zenith Bank Plc. In the same vein, the accomplished professional sits on the board of Zenith Bank UK as a Non-Executive Director.
On his enviable remuneration and shareholding in Zenith Bank Plc
As Nairametrics reported earlier in June, information available in Zenith Bank Plc’s 2017 financial report shows that Peter Amangbo earns an average of ₦88 million per annum. This makes him one of the highest earning top CEOs in Nigeria.
His shareholding structure in the company is such that he holds five million (5,000,000) units of direct shares and two million, three hundred thousand (2.3 million) units of indirect shares. This brings his total shareholding in Zenith Bank to seven million, three hundred thousand (7.3 million). When calculated with the company’s share price of ₦24 as at November 12th 2018, this translates to a value of ₦175 million.
His interrogation by EFCC
On August 27, 2018, Mr. Amangbo and some other staff of Zenith Bank Plc were invited to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) where they were reportedly interrogated over the bank’s supposed failure to flag some large cash withdrawals to the tune of ₦117 billion. The suspicious transactions were carried out by officials of the Rivers State government over the last three years.
Investigations are still ongoing and we hope that the outcome would not be accompanied by a heavy fine for wrongdoing.
Zenith Bank’s growth under his leadership
There is no gainsaying the fact that Mr. Amangbo has contributed immensely towards the development of Zenith Bank Plc, since his assumption of office in 2014. The figure below shows how the company’s financials have improved considerably over the past five years (of which he has been CEO for four of those years), with turnover increasing from some ₦311.2 billion in 2013 to ₦673.6 billion in 2017. Similarly, the company’s profit after tax surged from ₦83.4 billion in 2013 to ₦157.1 billion in 2017.
The company, under the leadership of Amangbo, continued the impressive success in 2018 by reporting a gross earning of ₦474.6 billion and a profit after of ₦144.1 billion.
