Ecobank Ghana appointed Abena
Osei-Poku as its substantive Managing Director and Regional Executive for the
Anglophone West Africa (AWA) Region of the Ecobank Group, effective January 1,
2024.
She takes over from Ms.
Joana Mensah, who is the immediate past Acting Managing Director, a position
she assumed on August 15, 2023, following the retirement of the former Managing
Director, Mr Dan Sackey.
Mrs. Abena Osei-Poku is an
accomplished Pan-African business leader with over 25 years of experience in
the financial services industry.
Her expertise spans
Corporate and Investment banking, Business banking and Risk Management at the
regional level.
She started her career as
a private banker with First Atlantic Merchant Bank.
She later joined Standard Chartered
Bank Ghana as an Assistant Relationship Manager and then became the Credit
Manager for Multinational Corporates.
She subsequently served as
the Head of the Group Special Assets Risk Management (SARM) department in Ghana
from 2001–2002 and later took up oversight responsibility for the West Africa
and Central Africa regions.
In 2005, she became the
Director for Global Corporates, Wholesale Bank.
After spending 10 years at
Standard Chartered Bank Ghana, she was appointed by Barclays Bank Ghana as the
Executive Director for Commercial Banking, responsible for Corporate &
Business Banking.
Mrs Abena Osei-Poku became the
Co-Regional Head of Coverage, Corporate and investment Banking at Absa Bank
Group (formerly Barclays Bank) in 2016 overseeing East and West Africa.
She was later appointed as
CEO and Managing Director of Absa Bank Ghana, a position she held until her
recent appointment by Ecobank.
She has broad board-level
experience, having previously sat on boards in telecommunications, banking,
commerce, and hospitality.
She is currently the
Chairperson of the Advisory Board of the College of Health Sciences, University
of Ghana and the outgoing Chairperson for the Council of the Ghana Stock
Exchange.
In addition, she is an Honorary
Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and an Honorary Fellow of the
Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana and serves on other executive fora.
Mrs. Abena Osei-Poku holds
an MBA from Manchester Business School, UK and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics
and Statistics from the University of Ghana.
