Business
Fidelity Bank chairman wins coveted Zik Prize
FELIX OLOYEDE
Ernest Ebi, Fidelity Bank Chairman
For his immense contributions to the development of corporate Nigeria, Ernest Ebi, chairman, board of directors, Fidelity Bank, has been named as one of winners of coveted 2017 Zik Award for Professional Leadership.
The former deputy governor, CBN, has been a major player in the country’s financial services sector for over four decades.
Other recipients of the Zik Prize for 2017 include Chief Bisi Akande, first National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Osun State governor who won the Zik Prize for Political Leadership; Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers State for Good Governance; Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director (NNPC), amongst others.
Professor Pat Utomi, Member, Advisory Board, of Public Policy Research and Analysis Centre, (PPRAC), organizers of the prestigious Zik Prize explained that the Zik Prize Leadership Award was instituted 24 years ago in honour of the first President of Nigeria, Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, primarily to encourage and nurture leadership on the African Continent and in the Diaspora.
“The year 2017 Zik Prize Award is set to follow this noble tradition of recognizing service excellence,” he claimed.
Ebi who served as deputy governor, Policy and Corporate Services, CBN from 1999 to 2009, was appointed Chairman, Fidelity Bank Plc on December 16, 2016 and currently serves as Non-Executive Director of Dangote Cement Plc.
He was Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of defunct New Nigeria Bank Plc, before becoming deputy managing director, Diamond Bank.
The boardroom guru was Chairman, Unic Insurance PLC and also served as the Chairman of Deputies of the Group of Twentyfour countries (G24 countries). He was also once Director of Afromedia PLC.
Past winners of the Zik Prize include: President J.J. Rawlings (1995), President Nwalimu Julius Nyerere (1997), Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim (1998), President Sam Nujoma (1999), Dr. Nelson Mandela (2000), President Yonweri Muzeveni (2003); President John Agyekum Kuffor (2008), Senator David Mark, Alhaji Yayale Ahmed (2010), Otunba Subomi Balogun (2010), President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2011), Governors Emmanuel Uduaghan, Rabiu Kwakwanso (2012); Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (2013) and Alhaji Umar Tanko Al Makura (2014).
