The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria on Saturday elected Kenneth Opara as the 22nd President/Chairman of Council of the institute.

Mr Opara, who was elected alongside seven other members during the institute’s 2022 Annual General Meeting in Lagos, would lead the institute for the next two years.

He will be succeeding Bayo Olugbemi, whose two-year tenure will end on May 21.

The other elected officers are: Pius Oladeji Olanrewaju, 1st Vice President; Oladele Alabi, 2nd Vice President and Mojisola Bakare-Asieru, National Treasurer.

Other elected positions in the Governing Council are: Victor Aguwah, Olayinka Odutola, Mary Aina and Segun Oshadare.

My Opara in his acceptance speech promised to “leverage what the past president has done”, and to “collaborate with the stakeholders, and work with other regulators and the banks” to ensure the institute contributes meaningfully.

Meanwhile, reviewing the institute’s 2021 financial and operational reports, the CIBN National Treasurer, Oladele Alabi, said the institute recorded an improved IGR of N1.77 billion in 2021.

Mr Alabi said the IGR represented an increase of 20.3 per cent when compared to the N1.47 billion recorded in 2020.

He added that the institute closed the year with a net operating surplus of N800.14 million from N570.26 million recorded in 2020, an increase of 40.31 per cent.

The Chairman of the CIBN Audit Committee, Babatunde Oduwaye, affirmed that the accounting and reporting policies of the institute were in accordance with legal requirements and ethical practices.

Speaking on the 2021 operations, the outgoing President, Mr Olugbemi, said the institute stood tall as a vanguard for the promotion of banking education and professionalism in Nigeria.

Mr Olugbemi said that the number of individual members grew from 144,922 as of April 30, 2021 to 149,967 as of March 24, 2022, representing an increase of 3.5 per cent over the previous year.

Mr Seye Awojobi, CIBN Registrar/Chief Executive Officer, said that a total of 291 graduates were conferred with MCIB, 380 candidates with the ACIB and 320 candidates via the regular ACIB Examination route.

He also said that 41 candidates were conferred via the Chartered Banker MBA route and 19 candidates via the MSc/ACIB Linkage Programme route.

(NAN)