Arnold Ekpe Nigeria
Evelyn Oputu Nigeria
Vincent Le Guennou Côte d’Ivoire With an enviable academic record (HEC, Dauphine, Harvard) Vincent is co-CEO and a founding partner of one of the largest private equity groups looking into Africa. The group manages some $1.8bn across the whole continent and Vincent is one of the driving forces behind this.
Arnold Ekpe is renowned throughout the banking world. He has over 28 years of African and international banking experience. His real success has been transforming Ecobank into Africa’s first pan-African multinational, with a footprint in over 30 countries, helping to realise the dream of the bank’s founding fathers. By creating a pan-African giant, Ekpe has helped set a benchmark as well as a blueprint for other institutions to follow. This modest and understated gentleman has the ear of many leaders across Africa.
Renowned for her professional banking expertise and vast experience in national enterprise incubation, growth and development. Oputu was appointed the first female and second managing director and CEO of the Bank of Industry in 2005. Combining outstanding brilliance with beauty, she is one of the great women achievers and icons of Nigeria. Even if she modestly declares that she is very lucky, no one can deny that she is a gifted, insightful and smart woman, with a much sought-after little black book.
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi Nigeria
Tidjane Thiam Côte d’Ivoire
Phuthuma Nhleko Swaziland The MTN Group grew substantially under Phuthuma Nhleko’s leadership to become Africa’s best-known brand and biggest telecoms provider. Despite stepping down from the group last year, Nhleko commands much respect and influence in business and political circles in South Africa and across the countries in which MTN operates.
Fred Swaniker Ghana This serial social entrepreneur has a keen interest in developing education and science in Africa. He co-founded and is the CEO of the African Leadership Academy, which he launched last year and which has become an influential network of young African leaders from all walks of life. Like many in his generation he knows that his continent has underperformed in the last 50 years and is conscious that it can only be developed by efficient and ethical leadership.
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria since 2009, this financial nonconformist put his life at risk as he unsettled some of Nigeria’s most feared businessmen when he oversaw a radical reform of the banking sector. An intellectual and a deep thinker, this highly principled scholar is deeply rooted in his cultural heritage. He has the respect of his counterparts around the world and can move markets with his statements. Sanusi has been instrumental in upholding the true values of banking, which lie in honesty and trust.
As he puts it himself, he is “black, African and six foot four”. But he is also a great and brilliant businessman. He is the first black chief executive of a UK FTSE 100 company – though he hates people dwelling on that. His room-mate at INSEAD described him as “a great combination of a first-class mind with a really passionate interest in people". He remains one of Africa’s key international business leaders, and a figure that international statesmen, policy makers and investors turn to for advice on African affairs.
Mike Adenuga Nigeria Nicknamed “the Guru” in his native Nigeria, Adenuga is the founder of a highly innovative telecoms giant, Globacom Nigeria, Consolidated Oil and Gas (Conoil) and a niche market banking leader, Equatorial Trust Bank. His story shows extraordinary determination to achieve success; he lost 2 telecoms licences, lost a bank, fled into exile under political prosecution but has always climbed back to the top as a businessman and philanthropist. Next in his sights: African dominance.
Arunma Oteh Nigeria Having made her name at the African Development Bank, Mrs Oteh was last year named the DG of the Securities Exchange Commission of Nigeria. This dynamic and gifted lady, in similar fashion to her counterparts at the Central Bank, is leading a transformation to modernise and clean up NIgeria's capital market and help it realise its true potential.
New African June 2011 | 19
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