Speculations About Heritage Bank CEO, Ifie Sekibo

<p><em>Speculations About Heritage Bank CEO<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>OpenLife Nigeria reports that of recent&comma; Ifie Sekibo&comma; the Chief Executive Officer&comma; Heritage Bank Plc&comma; has been the butt of discussions in some quarters over what could possibly be keeping him in Abuja&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;There are rumours that the bank is facing challenges and as such&comma; Sekibo is allegedly cashing in on his personal relationship with the Central Bank governor&comma; Mr&period; Godwin Emefiele to address some of the challenges&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;He is always in Abuja&period; He comes to the head office&comma; where his office is&comma; once a while&period; The head office is in Lagos&period; I think&comma; maybe&comma; the bank has challenges&comma;&&num;8221&semi; OpenLife was told&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;However&comma; findings by OpenLife indicates that the business environment has been hash and undulating&period; Players across sectors have had to go back to the drawing board and re engineered to be able to remain in business&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The outbreak of the pandemic since March 2020 has been a factor affecting growth prospects of industries including banks&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Speaking to OpenLife on Friday in Abuja&comma; a top executive in the banking&comma; who instructed not to be quoted&comma; added his voice to the speculations that have been rife&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to him&comma; &&num;8220&semi;The man spends more time in Abuja&period; That is a fact&period; But I am not sure it is connected with any challenge the bank is alleged to be facing&period; He is a CEO and must not necessarily be in Lagos to do his job&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he stated&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;But others see it differently saying there are undisclosed issues concerning the bank which have to be resolved in Abuja&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;His tenure is gradually coming to an end&comma;&&num;8221&semi; OpenLife was told even as investigation continues&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;It would be recalled that Sekibo&comma; a blood brother to Rivers State top politician&comma; Abiye Sekibo&comma; was formerly the managing director of International Energy Insurance&comma; IEI before he and some investors teamed up to revive the defunct Societe Generale Bank&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Their efforts came to fruition February 2013&comma; when the new Bank&comma; Heritage Bank&comma; commenced operations&period;20 Oct 2014<br &sol;>&NewLine;Meanwhile&comma; inquiry sent to the corporate affairs department of the bank has not been responded to as of the time of writing this report<&sol;p>&NewLine;