High Life
Any attempt to imagine Fidelity Bank without an accompanying image of Nnamdi Okonkwo is a daunting task for many people. Since 2014, both Fidelity Bank and Okonkwo have enjoyed more acclaim than other banks and MDs dare to enjoy in three decades. This is not the knuckles of luck at work, but competence and vision working hand in hand. Yet, the time is coming—and now is—when Okonkwo must take a step back from the apex position and allow the bank to enter a new era.
The decision by the bank’s board of directors to retire Nnamdi Okonkwo is something that has caught flames in Nigeria’s business news and corporate bulletins. Since forever, Okonkwo has been the symbol of the bank’s unstoppable momentum and force. Notwithstanding, Okonkwo’s time at Fidelity will be considered a period of explosion of assets and shareholders’ equity, customer growth, digital innovation, and all-round development.
Okonkwo took over Fidelity from Reginald Ihejiahi in 2014. Two years before, he was employed by the bank as the executive director in charge of the Fidelity’s businesses in southern Nigeria, excluding Lagos. It is by virtue of his peerless handling of that position that he climbed into the MD/CEO chair barely 20 months later.
With Okonkwo captaining the banking house, several awards of recognition and excellence were won by the bank. One of the most renowned of these awards is the bank’s 2017 fourth place on the list of Nigerian banks that provided the best services for customer satisfaction. Regardless of the metrics, Fidelity is always among the top 10 Nigerian banks. Okonkwo deserves some accolades in this regard as well.
All in all, Okonkwo’s leadership at Fidelity is tiptoeing to its end. Soon, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe—who currently oversees the bank’s operations in the Lagos and south-western directorates—will take over Okonkwo’s position as MD/CEO.
A formidable figure with over 30 years’ banking experience and a blazing trail of achievements, some eyes are on Onyeali-Ikpe. Whichever eye isn’t staring at the incoming MD/CEO remains trained on Nnamdi Okonkwo as he prepares for retirement and brings his era at Fidelity Bank to a sigh-silent close.
