Ecobank Chairman, Lawson to step down amid governance allegations

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(Nigeria) Ecobank Transnational Inc. ETI, the most geographically-diverse lender in Africa, said Chairman Kolapo Lawson will step down amid allegations of fraud that are being investigated by Nigeria’s capital markets regulator, reports bloomberg
Lawson, who denies any wrongdoing, will retire on December 31 and hand over immediately to interim chairman André Siaka, Jeremy Reynolds, a spokesman for the Lome, Togo-based lender, said, Wednesday in a statement.
Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Ecobank after executive director of risk and finance, Laurence do Rego, told the regulator in August that Lawson and Chief Executive Officer Thierry Tanoh planned to sell assets below market value. Do Rego also said she had been pressured to write off debts owed by a business headed by Lawson and manipulate the bank’s results last year.
“I am very conscious of the uncertainty that current media speculation has cast over the institution,” Lawson said in today’s statement. “I therefore, wish to take the necessary steps to bring this to an end.”
Tanoh also denied any allegation of wrongdoing last month. Still, the bank said he’ll forgo a $1.14 million bonus for 2012 as it appointed external advisers to review corporate governance.
Lawson, Ecobank chairman since 2009, is also chairman of Acorn Petroleum Plc and Agbara Estates Ltd., according to Ecobank’s 2012 annual report.
Lawson has been an Ecobank’s non-executive director since 1993, according to the annual report, and also chief executive officer of a diversified industrial and trading group with operations in the U.K. and West Africa.
“The last few months have seen huge pressure on the organisation, and on me personally, in the media,” said Lawson. “These have culminated in allegations, which are untrue, made to the Nigerian SEC on issues of corporate governance.”

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