Remi Babalola, who in April was appointed chairman of FBN Holdings Plc by the Central Bank of Nigeria, following the abrupt exit of his predecessor, Oba Otudeko, has given up the top board role at the financial services group, it was gathered.
Although no official announcement has yet been made, including from the Nigerian Exchange Limited, sources informed that the financial expert has given up the job.
The exit of Babalola, who was Nigeria’s Minister of State for Finance once upon a time, is coming at a time a new biggest shareholder has just emerged at the holdco in the person of billionaire mogul Femi Otedola.
Otedola said he had no interest in any board position in both the group and its subsidiaries but it was probable that he would be appointing someone onto the holdco’s board.
Babalola is formerly an executive director of FBN Holdings commercial banking arm FirstBank of Nigeria Limited, with his broad experience spanning consulting, auditing, training and banking.
His career began at the consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers before he moved to American holding company Arthur Andersen and then Zenith Bank, variously serving as chief strategist, financial controller and general manager at the lender.
An agricultural economics graduate from University of Ibadan, he is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, and the Institute of Directors of Nigeria.