In the new organizational rejig, Olakunle Alake the erstwhile Chief Operating Officer (COO) is now the Group Managing Director and Dr. Adenike Fajemirokun, the Group Chief Risk Officer has been elevated to the office of Group Executive Director, President’s Office, where she will take on new roles in addition to her schedule as the Risk Officer. She is the first ever female executive director in Dangote Group.

The management also announced the appointment of Austine Ometoruwa as Group Executive Director, Corporate Finance and Treasury.

Earlier the Board of Dangote Cement Plc, global, announced the appointment of Cherie Blair and Mick Davies as Independent Non-Executive Directors.

President/Chief Executive, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, speaking on the new appointments said “it is exciting seeing a female occupy such a high position. We are gender sensitive and create equal opportunities for both male and female to get to the top.”

“The new appointments are to strengthen the Group’s executive management team and to consolidate on its strategic business growth trajectory”, he added.

Alake has been the Chief Operating Officer of Dangote Industries Limited since 2007. He serves on the board of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, NASCON Allied Industries PLC, Dangote Cement PLC and Dangote Flour Mills PLC. Alake’s experience spans 34 years which covers banking, management consultancy and manufacturing industries.

He joined Dangote Group in July 1997 and served as its Financial Controller and Head of Strategic Services till 2001 when he was appointed to the board of Dangote Industries Limited as Executive Director/ Group Strategist.

He started his working career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a firm of Chartered Accountants in September 1984 and left in 1990 to join Liberty Merchant Bank Limited as the Financial Controller for three years.

Between August 1993 and July 1997, Alake served as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Merchant Securities Limited and was part of the team that provided consultancy services for the smooth take-over of the International Trust Bank Plc, by Dangote Group in August 1996. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. Alake holds a
Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in 1983.

Dr. Fajemirokun, a consummate Risk Management & Insurance specialist has over 18 years diverse experience in developing and implementing risk management strategies in Financial, Engineering, Manufacturing and other industries.

She started her career with Ove Arup and Partners as a Fire Engineer where she was responsible for carrying out qualitative and quantitative risk assessment of various assets and developing risk assessment frameworks for quantifying identified risks.

She later joined Deutsche Bank AG, UK, and served in senior leadership roles such as Director and Global Head Operational Risk, Head of Transaction Management Group for leverage finance at the Corporate and Investment Bank. Prior to specializing in the Risk Management field, she held positions in finance as a front office quantitative analyst at Goldman Sachs London and New York.

Dr. Fajemirokun worked with First Bank of Nigeria where she developed the operational risk management framework for the bank as well as its Business Continuity Certification by the British Standard Institute. She also managed and tracked the firm’s risks across all directorates, transaction services and alternative investments.

In 2010, She founded and headed AFRisk Management Consultants Limited which developed the enterprise risk management frameworks for some of the country’s major institutions including Central Bank of Nigeria, First Bank Nigeria and First Bank Capital Plc.

She was appointed Chief Risk Officer of Dangote Group in 2013 and leads the Risk Management Functions for the Group and its various Businesses where she oversees the company’s governance model and enterprise risk program. She develops and manages processes to identify, assess, monitor and reduce risks that could interfere with the achievement of the company’s goals and objectives. She is also responsible for managing the Group’s Insurance, Procurement Portfolio and Logistics.

A holder of B.Eng. in Civil, Structural and Fire Engineering and a Ph.D. in Risk Informed Engineering both from the University of Manchester, UK, Dr. Fajemirokun is a Fellow of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Specialist member (SIRM) of the Global Institute of Risk Management. She is also a visiting professor at the University of Manchester, UK. She has been recognized globally for her work with the Operational Riskdata Exchange Association (ORX), Institute of Risk Management, UK. She is a member of the Lagos State Research and Innovation Council.

Ometoruwa is an accomplished international investment banker. Prior to joining the Dangote Group as the Group Executive Director, Corporate Finance and Treasury, Austine Ometoruwa provided advisory services to the Dangote Group over the past 25 years in his capacity as the Executive Chairman of his firm, Boston Trico Capital LLC.

He started his professional career as a credit analyst at Chase Manhattan Bank. He thereafter progressed to Bank of Boston as the General Manager in Nigeria before moving on to Standard Bank of South Africa (Stanbic) as Strategy Consultant.

Ometoruwa was the first Nigerian appointed as Executive Director to the Board of Citibank Nigeria leading its West Africa investment banking and subsequently as CEO and Regional Director of Corporate & Investment Bank, Citibank Middle East North Africa (MENA) operating in Cairo, London & New York.

He setup and launched the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) as the founding President and CEO. Ometoruwa was awarded the Dean’s Prize and First Class Honours Bachelor’s Degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.

Cherie Blair CBE, QC is a leading barrister with over 35 years’ experience in arbitration, mediation, public international law, human rights, employment law and European Community law. She studied law at the London School of Economics (LSE) and graduated with a First Class Degree in 1975. While studying for her Bar examinations she also taught Law at the University of Westminster. Cherie came top of her year in her Bar examinations and was called to the Bar in 1976. She was appointed Queen’s Counsel (QC) in 1995.

In 2000, shortly before the implementation of the Human Rights Act, Cherie and 21 other prominent Barristers set up a ground breaking legal practice, Matrix Chambers. She has also argued cases in the House of Lords, one of the most well-known being the Begum case. She is an accredited Advanced Mediator under the ADR Chambers/Harvard Law Project and an Elite Mediator with Clerksroom.

Cherie Blair, has appeared in the European Court of Justice and in multiple Commonwealth jurisdictions and also lectures internationally. She is the Chancellor Emeritus and Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University; Governor Emeritus and Honorary Fellow of the LSE and the Open University (D.Univ.Open 1999); LLD (Hons), University of Liverpool (2003); Hon.D.Lit UMIST (2003); Doctor of Laws (Westminster University).

Cherie Blair is the Founder and Chair of Omnia Strategy where she focuses on strategic international legal and advisory work and practices as a barrister, representing over 30 governments as well as numerous multinational corporations in international disputes.

In 2012, she was designated to serve on the ICSID panel of arbitrators and is a panellist at the Kuala Lumpur Regional Centre for Arbitration. She continues to work independently, primarily as an arbitrator and mediator

Cherie is closely involved with various charities and is a strong advocate for women’s rights. She is the founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, which runs programmes to support women entrepreneurs across the developing world, including Africa. She is also Vice Chair of the International Council on Women’s Business Leadership founded by Secretary Hillary Clinton.

Cherie sits as an Honorary Chair of the World Justice Project. In 2007, she received the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill medal in recognition of her high ideals and courageous actions.

In 2013, she was awarded the CBE in the New Year Honours for her services to women’s issues and to charity in the UK and overseas.

Cherie is also an active campaigner for prison reform and was ‘President of The Commission on English Prisons Today’ between 2007 and 2009, under the auspices of the Howard League for Penal Reform.

She is an adviser to “B Team,” a not-for-profit initiative formed by a global group of leaders, to be a driving force for social, environmental and economic benefit. She is wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Sir Mick Davies is currently Chairman of Macsteel, a global trading shipping company, and Chief Executive of the Conservative party of the United Kingdom.

Davies has occupied several directorship positions. From 2001 to 2003, he was Chief Executive of Xstrata Plc, one of the world’s largest global diversified mining and metal companies; executive director and chief financial officer of Billiton Plc; Chairman of Billiton Coal and Executive Director of South African State-owned Eskom.

With extensive capital markets and corporate transaction experience, he has raised over US$40 billion from global capital markets and successfully completed over US$120 billion of corporate transactions. He participated in the creation of the lngwe Coal Corporation in South Africa; listing of Billiton on the London Stock Exchange; merger of BHP and Billiton into the largest diversified mining company in the world and the successful merger of Xstrata and Glencore amongst others.

Sir Davies is the immediate past President of the Council of Members and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Leadership Council in the United Kingdom, member of the Brookings International Advisory Council and a Trustee of the Institute of National Security Studies, Israel.

He is a Chartered Accountant by profession and an alumnus of Theodor Herzl School in Port Elizabeth. He holds an honours degree in Commerce from Rhodes University. South Africa, and an Honorary Doctorate from Bar llan University. In the 2015 Queen’s birthday Honour’s list, he was made a Knight’s Bachelor

The post Dangote announces new appointments for strategic growth sustenance appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

Elumelu who gave this commendation during the AFC’s 10th Anniversary celebrations in Abuja, Nigeria, was also full of praises for the corporate governance culture exhibited and practiced by the AFC, adding that its impact has been felt not only in Africa, but by the world over.

The UBA Group chairman who was honoured and recognised at the event as a long serving board member of the AFC, said, “As a pioneer chairman of Risk and governance at the AFC, I interacted closely with management and the AFC has world class leadership and management. We have seen great seeds planted. This is indeed an African institution domiciled in Nigeria with world class standards’ he said as he referred to the Triple A rating of the AFC.”

Having served on the board of AFC for nine years, he shared his vision and hopes for the corporation in the next 10 years as he sat on a panel titled “The foundation for growth”, alongside the former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Former Central Bank governor of Nigeria, Professor Chuwuma Soludo.

‘The commodity crisis has demonstrated that we need to attract more capital to Africa and I would like to see the AFC mobilizing much needed capital to the continent as we engage with our political leaders to create the enabling environment for growth and development’ Elumelu said.

Acting Nigerian President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, who had earlier opened the AFC’s summit on Infrastructure revolution, commended Obasanjo, for his clear vision in conceiving the idea of an African Development Finance Institution that would be birthed on the continent.

“The idea of developing a wholly African Finance Institution that was the will of African leaders, nations and institutions, seemed far-fetched a decade ago,” he said. He expressed pride that Africa was on the right path. ‘This coming decade is Africa’s time’ he stated, saying that the world would be seeing real development on the continent in the next few years.

Other African leaders who were in attendance at the summit include the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; Ghana’s Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta; Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun; Uganda’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Hon Kasija Matia; Gambian Minister of Trade, Isatou Touray; Nigeria’s former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili and many others.

The post Elumelu, African leaders commend AFC on world class governance standards appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

Reacting to the criticisms that have trailed his advocacy for the sale of national assets, Dangote told THISDAY that his proposal was borne out of the desire to see Nigeria get out of the current economic recession.

In an interview with CNBC Africa, the billionaire had said the government would be able to raise between $12 billion and $15 billion from the sale of the company.

“If I had challenges in my company, I would not hesitate to sell assets, to remain afloat, to get to the better times, because it doesn’t make any sense for me to keep any assets and then suffocate the whole organisation,” he had said.

“The African Finance Corporation… it can fetch them $800 million easily. My own suggestion before was that they should even sell 100 percent of NLNG. I don’t think government should be in any business of investing in sectors of LNG.

“A company like that, with earnings of $1.5 billion on the average, they should get anywhere between $12 billion and $15 billion.”

The comment had generated reactions, with some saying the billionaire was interested in buying the company.

But Dangote waved aside the criticisms, saying he offered the suggestions as “a true Nigerian who really wants the issues about the economy to be sorted out”.

“You know the issue, once your reserves are low, the banks, entrepreneurs, including external forces, would definitely attack your currency. They would speculate on your currency,” he said.

“We all know that the exchange rate of almost N500 to the dollar is not a true reflection of the value of the currency – the naira cannot be almost N500 to the dollar!

“But you see, if this thing is not handled properly, it can get out of hand. It can get to N600 to the dollar, or even N700 to the dollar.

“But the issue is, why did I suggest that we should sell some of the assets? I know the touchy one is the NLNG. I want to make it categorically clear that even if the government is selling NLNG on credit, I am not interested in buying.

“I don’t have any interest in NLNG and I will not buy it. It is not a business that I want to invest in. It is a mature business; that is what people don’t understand.

“You see, we should have invested heavily in all these Brass LNG, Olokola LNG, etc, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo started work on the projects, but we missed the opportunity.

“Today, you have massive LNG projects that have been done by Qatar, Australia and the United States is also exporting. But right now, all the gas that we have is even in the ground. Even Mozambique has a massive amount of gas and also Tanzania, and they are nearer to the markets than we are.

“So, if somebody is even going to invest in LNG, he would go to those areas and invest there and not here in Nigeria, because the investment here is daunting. So my own suggestion is that even if we must sell, it doesn’t have to be 100 per cent of our interest in NLNG.”

Follow Us

The post I won’t buy NLNG even if govt offers it on credit – Dangote appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.

Lemo was credited, among other things, for playing a key role in the implementation of the Banking Sector Consolidation under both administrations of Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and incumbent Sanusi.

The exercise resulted in the 24 stronger and well capaitalised banks with combined equity of over N1.6 trillion from 89 largely weak banks as well as the formulation and implementation of the Microfinance Policy and Supervisory Framework.

A statement by the CBN in Abuja, on Wednesday, indicated that Lemo’s retirement would take effect from January 11, 2014, being the last working day before his retirement date.

Prior to his appointment,  Lemo was the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Wema Bank Nigeria, Plc between 2000 and 2003.

Born in 1959, Lemo attended Lisabi Grammar School, Ogun State and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where he emerged as the Best Overall graduating student in the Faculty of Social Sciences with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accountancy (First Class Division) in 1984.

Lemo is also reported to have attended Advanced Management Programme, AMP, at the Wharton College, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, U.S.A in 2002 as well as executive training programmes in world class institutions including Harvard University, INSEAD, Fontainbleau, France, Brandies University, Boston.

He also championed the restructuring of Abuja Security and Commodities Exchange and Nigeria Export Import Bank, NEXIM, as the Chairman of both institutions.

As Vice Chairman Technical Committee for the establishment of Africa Finance Corporation, AFC, Lemo participated actively in the establishment of the Pan-African investment institution.

Lemo was equally responsible for the transformation of the National Payments System for widespread use of electronic payments and the transformation of the Nigeria Inter-Bank and Settlement Systems (NIBSS), Plc.

The post Lemo bows out as CBN Deputy Gov appeared first on New Mail Nigeria.