A community member sent this note to me: “Good day Sir. Just as you postulated that GTBank will transform into a holding company to keep its CEO Segun Agbaje. That happens Sir, You’re a business oracle, you see from very far. Please cut soap for me Sir.” Indeed, he was referring to many posts I made, informing our community that Mr Agbaje would not retire but ascend into a HoldCo (holding company) CEO, post GTBank.
Though I began sharing that publicly in 2020 in many posts in Tekedia; see this ,”GTBank has a different incentive: the GCEO is hitting his 10th CEO tenure (max by regulations) and to remain as boss, he needs a holdco to control the bank,” my first call was in an investment bank retreat where I used one statement the ace banker made in 2016 to extrapolate my hypothesis.
When Mr Agbaje used the word “habari” which I extended to Habari banking (Nov 2018), I told them in New York that he would remain because only him understood the Habari banking philosophy, and that Habari banking was a holdco company which will become evident in 2021, just on his 10th year as a bank CEO. I explained that he could not use holdco as that would be premature but he would be there later. By regulation, bank CEOs can serve a maximum of ten years in Nigeria.
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I want to congratulate Mr Agbaje. He is now the big boss of Guaranty Trust Holding Co Plc which has GTBank Limited as the largest subsidiary.
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