Lion Appoints Former CBE Finance VP As New President

Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)

By Mahlet Mesfin

9 May 2011

After being headed by different acting presidents, Lion International Bank (LIB) appointed Nigusu Gebremedihin, 35, former vice president of finance for Commercial bank of Ethiopia (CBE), as its president last week.

“The bank was looking for the right person for the position and it has finally found that person,” said Meressa Gebremariam, who had served Construction and Business Bank (CBB) in different positions, including vice president, for 25 years before joining LIB.

Meressa served as the second president of LIB for two years after Tsegaye Tetmeke. The same day Meressa filed his resignation letter as LIB president, on March 15, 2010, Daniel Gebregiziabher was appointed acting president. Following Daniel’s resignation, Meressa served as acting president for about seven months until Nigusu’s appointment.

Nigusu has been in different positions at CBE for 14 years. He has a diploma in accounting from the Addis Abeba College of Commerce (AACC), a degree in economics from Addis Abeba University (AAU), and is working on his MBA at Greenwich University through a distance education programme.

Nigusu was forced to resign as vice president of finance in November 2010 when CBE’s board of directors, which was chaired by Abay Tsehaye at the time, decided that Nigusu had been negligent in failing to pay tax dues. CBE had to pay penalties amounting to about 50 million Br to the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA) source inside CBE told Fortune.

“Situation back there forced me to resign,” Nigusu told Fortune. “My short-term plan is to keep LIB profitable under the existing challenging environment of the sector.”

Nigusu was introduced to executive members of the bank on Friday, May 6, 2011. His appointment will become official this week.

Meressa is to serve as vice president of LIB, which had 6,400 shareholders, a paid-up capital of 200 million Br, and a subscribed capital of 432 million Br, in June 2010.

The bank had a disagreement with National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) over the approval of its board of directors. LIB was found to lack a proper understanding of the election law of the central bank, by NBE.

A total of 14 people were nominated for its new board of directors at a general assembly called and supervised by the central bank, in August 2010.

Despite the challenging internal problems, LIB made 50 million Br in profits during Meressa’s tenure in the 2009/10 fiscal year when 20 million Br was approved for dividends payments to shareholders for the first time.

In the same year, the LIB mobilised one billion Birr in deposits through its 24 branches, 10 of which are located in Addis Abeba.

AllAfrica – All the Time