Ivorian Tidjane Thiam, the first African CEO of a FTSE100 company, and Nigerian Jim Ovia, chairman of Zenith Bank, were the winners in the African Banker Icon and Lifetime Achievement categories, respectively.
In the African Bank of the Year category, Groupe Banque Populaire beat stiff competition from four short-listed nominees to win the coveted title. Groupe Banque Populaire is one of the most important financial services groups in Morocco. It has recently taken a major stake in West African group Banque Atlantique and helped to turn around its performance significantly.
Important shareholders
Veteran banker Essien from Ghana inherited a bank in a precarious position last year, but has managed to steady the ship and bring in some important shareholders to strengthen Ecobank's capital base.
The incoming CEO of Swiss Bank, Credit Suisse, Tidjane Thiam, was honoured with this year's African Banker Icon award. Thiam is one of Africa's global leaders, the first African head of the top 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, as well as a former Minister of Finance of Côte d'Ivoire.
Alongside him, the Lifetime Achievement award was presented to the outstanding leader and entrepreneur Jim Ovia, founder and chairman of Zenith Bank in Nigeria, which is one of the country's best performing banks.
Groupe Banque Populaire, Morocco
Albert Essien, Group CEO Ecobank (ETI)
Jim Ovia, chairman, Zenith Bank, Nigeria
Claver Gatete, Rwanda
Prof Njuguna Ndung'u, Kenya
Tidjane Thiam, former finance minister of Cote d'Ivoire and CEO of Prudential
Attijariwafa Bank, Morocco
Orabank
Groupe BGFI Bank, Gabon
Bank of Kigali, Rwanda
Banco de Comercio e Investimentos, Mozambique
Standard Bank, South Africa
Rand Merchant Bank, South Africa
Millennium BIM, Mozambique
BMCE Bank, Morocco
Fondation Attawfik, Morocco
Seplat IPO (Standard Bank)
$850m Commercial and ECA Backed Financing Package for the Ethiopian Railways Corporation (Credit Suisse)
$1.3bn Petroleum Export Limited Syndicated Pre-export Facility, Commercial International Bank (CIB), Egypt
CENPOWER - KPONE IPP, Africa Finance Corporation, Nigeria
Senegal Sukuk, Citi and ICD
Abidjan was host to the African Development Bank annual meetings. This year's ceremony was hosted by MasterCard International. Speaking at the event, MasterCard's division president for sub-Saharan Africa, Daniel Monehin said: "We believe that the African Banker Awards understands precisely what excellence in banking means - one only has to consider the award winners and nominees tonight. This is why we are proud to support these awards, where we recognise and commemorate our banking colleagues who have, in the last year, provided us with outstanding examples of progress towards our shared goal of banking excellence."
