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CommentMarch 24 2014

A cautionary tale for African banks

The controversy that has dogged pan-African lender Ecobank in the last nine months has shaken it to its core. Last month Thierry Tanoh, its chief executive, was forced to stand down in what was the latest and, Ecobank shareholders will hope, possibly the last in a series of events that has dented the institution’s credibility.
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The most contentious issues related to claims made last year by Laurence do Rego, Ecobank’s then-suspended head of finance. She said she was pressurised to manipulate the bank’s 2012 results and write-off loans owed to its Nigerian subsidiary by a family company of Kolapo Lawson, Ecobank’s chairman.

Mr Tanoh and Mr Lawson both deny any wrongdoing. But the outcome of the saga is that they have lost their jobs, while Ms do Rego, who was suspended for having false qualifications, an allegation she disputed, has been reinstated at the behest of Nigeria’s capital markets regulator.

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