Controversial Whistle blower Laurence Do Rego finally retires from ETI

Whistle blower, Mrs. Laurence Do Rogo has finally retired from Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI).

The information which filtered into the media during the Banks Annual General Meeting last week also revealed that Do Rogo is bowing out with two other Executive Directors of ETI including; Mr. Andre Siaka and Mrs Evelyn Tall Daouda while Mr. Alain Francis Nkontchou was elected to the Board as a Director for a term of three (3) years.

The Group Executive Director for Finance and Risk, Mrs. Laurence Do Rego, was suspended from the Pan African Financial institution after she told the SEC in August 2014 that Tanoh and former Chairman Kolapo Lawson planned to sell assets below market value.

Do Rogo said she was pressured to write off debts owed by a business headed by Lawson and manipulate the bank’s results.

Even though Tanoh and Lawson denied any wrongdoing at the time, they were eventually asked to leave the bank’s service while she was reinstated to serve out her tenure.

“Ecobank Transnational Incorporated today announces that Mrs. Laurence do Rego, the Group Executive Director for Finance and Risk, is no longer an employee of the company,” The bank had said in a statement.

”The Board of Directors of ETI has announced in line with the directive of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mrs. Laurence do Rego had been reinstated as the Group Executive Director of Finance and Risk with immediate effect”, also said the bank.

However, the bank has since overcome its corporate governance challenges to reposition.

Feelers from its books reveal that better days may be ahead of Ecobank Transnational incorporated (ETI) again after a season of crisis which almost sniffed life out of the PAN African Bank.

The bank, surprisingly, turned around its fortunes and delivered an unprecedented performance since it’s over 30 years of operations.

ETI posted a mind boggling result as its net profit after jumped by 179 per cent to N65.7bn in 2014 from N23.57 billion recorded in 2013. Pre-tax profit also rose by 144 per cent from N35.37 billion to N86.44 billion while Gross earnings grew by 19 per cent from N319.56 billion in 2013 to N379.32 billion in 2014.

Further analysis showed that the total assets of the group grew by 25 per cent to N4.50 trillion in 2014 compared with N3.6 trillion recorded in 2013.

Loans and advances also improved by 25 per cent from N1.82 trillion to N2.29 trillion.

 Customer deposit rose by 23per cent to N3.24 trillion in 2014 as against N2.63 trillion in 2013.

It’s total shareholders’ funds jumped by 45 per cent to N493.02 billion in 2014 as against N341.01 billion in 2013.

Albert Essien, its Group chief executive officer, said the performance in 2014 was a great example of the benefit of the group’s diversified business model.