# Ecobank Group

Ecobank, whose official name is Ecobank Transnational Inc. (ETI), is a pan-African banking conglomerate, with banking operations in 33 African countries. It is the leading independent regional banking group in West Africa and Central Africa, serving wholesale and retail customers. It also maintains subsidiaries in Eastern and Southern Africa. ETI has an affiliate in France, and representative offices in China, Dubai, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

## History

Ecobank was founded in 1985 to address the financial needs of West African entrepreneurs. The initiative originated from the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce, aiming to establish a private regional banking institution. Key figures Gervais Koffi Djondo and Adeyemi Lawson played a crucial role in realizing this vision, which was first discussed in Mali in 1972.
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) was incorporated with an authorized capital of $100 million, with an initial paid-up capital of $32 million from over 1,500 investors across West Africa. The ECOWAS Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and Development became its largest shareholder, reinforcing its regional mission.
ETI is a large financial services provider with offices in 35 sub-Saharan countries. As of December 2012, ETI's customer base was estimated at 32 million. ETI's branch network numbered 1,305, with 1,981 networked ATMs.

## Group network

As of June 2014, Ecobank Transnational had banking operations in 36 African countries, with representative offices in Angola, Beijing, Dubai, Ethiopia, South Africa and the United Kingdom:
Ecobank Transnational has operational bank subsidiaries in the following countries, as of July 2013:

### Africa

* Ecobank Angola - (Representative office in Luanda)
* Ecobank Benin
* Ecobank Burkina Faso
* Ecobank Burundi
* Ecobank Cameroon
* Ecobank Cape Verde
* Ecobank Central African Republic
* Ecobank Chad
* Ecobank Congo Brazzaville
* Ecobank Côte d'Ivoire
* Ecobank Democratic Republic of the Congo
* Ecobank Ethiopia - (Representative office in Addis Ababa)
* Ecobank Equatorial Guinea
* Ecobank Gabon
* Ecobank Gambia
* Ecobank Ghana
* Ecobank Guinea
* Ecobank Guinea-Bissau
* Ecobank Kenya
* Ecobank Liberia
* Ecobank Malawi
* Ecobank Mali
* Ecobank Mozambique
* Ecobank Niger
* Ecobank Nigeria (includes Oceanic Bank)
* Ecobank Rwanda
* Ecobank São Tomé and Príncipe
* Ecobank Senegal
* Ecobank Sierra Leone
* Ecobank South Africa (Representative office in Johannesburg)
* Ecobank South Sudan
* Ecobank Tanzania
* Ecobank Togo
* Ecobank Uganda
* Ecobank Zambia
* Ecobank Zimbabwe

### Outside Africa

* Paris, France - Affiliate office
* London, United Kingdom - France affiliate representative office
* Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Representative office
* Beijing, China - Representative office

## History

ETI, a public limited liability company, was established as a bank holding company in 1985 under a private sector initiative spearheaded by the Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce and Industry, with the support of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In the early 1980s the banking industry in West Africa was dominated by foreign and state-owned banks. There were hardly any commercial banks in West Africa owned and managed by the African private sector. ETI was founded with the objective of filling this vacuum.
The Federation of West African Chambers of Commerce promoted and initiated a project for the creation of a private regional banking institution in West Africa. In 1984, Ecopromotions S.A. was incorporated. Its founding shareholders raised the seed capital for the feasibility studies and the promotional activities leading to the creation of ETI.
In October 1985, ETI was incorporated with an authorised capital of US$100 million. The initial paid up capital of US$32 million was raised from over 1,500 individuals and institutions from West African countries. The largest shareholder was the ECOWAS Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and Development (ECOWAS Fund), now called the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), the development finance arm of ECOWAS. A Headquarters’ Agreement was signed with the government of Togo in 1985 which granted ETI the status of an international organisation with the rights and privileges necessary for it to operate as a regional institution, including the status of a non-resident financial institution.
ETI has several specialised subsidiaries: Ecobank Development Corporation (EDC) and eProcess International (eProcess). EDC was incorporated with a broad mandate to develop Ecobank’s investment banking and advisory businesses throughout the countries where Ecobank operates. EDC operates brokerage houses on all 3 stock exchanges in West Africa and has obtained licences to operate on the two stock exchanges in Central Africa: the Douala Stock Exchange in Cameroon and the Libreville Exchange in Gabon. The mandate of eProcess is to manage the Group’s information technology function with a view to ultimately centralising the Group’s middle and back office operations to improve efficiency, service standards and reduce costs.

## Governance lapses

Ecobank has been marred by several well publicized governance lapses:
The sacking and reinstatement of the CFO in 2014 after she alleged: "... Mrs. Do Rego sent a letter to the SEC alleging that the Chairman, Mr. Lawson and GCEO Mr.Tanoh were attempting to sell non-core assets at values below market, that both individuals ‘attempted’ to manipulate the 2012 results to enable the Group (ETI) to show a much better 2013 growth, and she questioned procedures around the approval of a substantial increase in Mr.Tanoh’s 2012 bonus (which he subsequently opted not to receive). She also alleged that she was asked to write off debts owed by a real estate company Mr. Lawson chairs..."
The Chairman resigned but later sued Ecobank to force them to investigate the allegations backed by an confidential E&Y audit report on serious allegations of Fraud.
" As the Chairman of the Board at the time the EY investigation was commissioned, I instructed my lawyers to write a letter to the Board expressly warning them of the illegality of presenting these accounts to the shareholders without making full disclosure of the facts. This letter was delivered to board members on the 26th June 2014 (See Appendix 1). Unfortunately the letter was ignored by the Board of ETI and this obvious dereliction of duty continues to date"
Ecobank then settled the matter with the chairman and absolved him of any wrongdoing.
In December 2024, a $68 million claim was launched in Dubai against Jeremy Awori, CEO of Ecobank Transnational Inc, and ETI's subsidiaries; ETI Special Resolutions Company (ETISRC), and its Managing Director, Oladele 'Dele' Alabi; Ecobank Nigeria Limited (commonly referred to as Ecobank Nigeria), on allegations of defamation, abusive proceedings, and coercion in Nigeria.
The defendants are alleged to have attempted to coerce Wilben Trade and its CEO, Marcus Wade, into making substantial undue payments to Ecobank Nigeria and ETISRC following a loss suffered in 2015, in what Wilben's legal counsel has described as an extortion attempt.
ETI's leadership, including CEO Awori, has reportedly been aware of ETISRC and its managing director Alabi's alleged extortion against Wilben Trade since August 2023 but has taken no action to stop it.

## Subsidiaries

The Specialized subsidiary companies of Ecobank include the following:
* EBI SA Groupe Ecobank - Paris, France
* EBI SA Representative Office - London, United Kingdom
* Ecobank Development Corporation (EDC) - Lomé, Togo
* EDC Investment Corporation - Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
* EDC Investment Corporation - Douala, Cameroon
* Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Specialized Resolutions Company - Lagos, Nigeria
* EDC Securities Limited - Lagos, Nigeria
* EDC Stockbrokers Limited - Accra, Ghana
* Ecobank Asset Management - Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
* e-Process International SA - Accra, Ghana
* Ecobank Asset Management Company P/L - Harare, Zimbabwe

## The Ecobank Nedbank alliance

With more than 1,500 branches in 35 countries, the Ecobank-Nedbank Alliance is the largest banking network in Africa. The alliance was formed in 2008 between the Ecobank Group and the Nedbank Group, one of South Africa's four largest financial services providers, with a growing footprint of operations across the Southern African Development Community.

## Ownership

The shares of Ecobank Transnational Inc., the parent company of Ecobank, are traded on three West African stock exchanges, namely: the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) and the BRVM stock exchange in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. As of December 2021, the ten largest shareholders in Ecobank Transnational were as follows:
Ecobank Transnational Inc Stock Ownership :
| Rank | Name of Owner | Percentage Ownership |
| 1 | Nedbank Group Limited | 21.22 |
| 2 | Qatar National Bank | 20.10 |
| 3 | Arise B.V | 14.10 |
| 4 | Government Employees Pension Fund | 13.48 |
| 5 | Social Security and National Insurance Trust | 3.86 |
| 6 | Nkontchou Alain Francis | 1.06 |
| 7 | B.I.D.C | 0.91 |
| 8 | Other Investors | 25.27 |
| | Total | 100.0 |