Meet Dele Babade, the new acting chairman of Diamond Bank Plc

Uzoma Uja, the bank's secretary/legal adviser, stated this in a statement released on Thursday, December 27, 2018.

According to the statement, Babade's appointment as chairman was effective December 24, 2018.

He was first nominated by First Carlyle Growth V (“Carlyle”) and his appointment as a Non-Executive Director was approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria effective April 20, 2017. Carlyle is one of the strong shareholders in the Nigerian lender.

His appointment follows the resignation of Oluseyi Bickersteth as Director/ Chairman of the Board, the Board of Directors of Diamond Bank Plc.

Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa recalls that in November, Bickersteth and three non-executive directors resigned their positions. The development, analysts and banking sources said was to pave way for new capital injections and the new investors to have more feelings about the banking operations.

Access Bank CEO, Herbert Wigwe, Diamond Bank CEO, Uzoma Dozie and other top management at a World Press Conference, December 19, 2018. Access Bank CEO, Herbert Wigwe, Diamond Bank CEO, Uzoma Dozie and other top management at a World Press Conference, December 19, 2018. Pulse Nigeria

Diamond Bank is merging with Access Bank, in a move that pointed towards outright acquisition by Nigeria's tier-I bank. The deal projected to be completed in the first half of 2019 will see Access bank as Nigeria's largest financial installation.

Carlyle, the US private equity firm declined comment when Business Insider Sub-Saharan Africa contacted the group on the Access-Diamond Bank deal.

Who is Dele Babade?

Babade holds Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Laws from University of London and was called to both the Nigerian and English Bar.

He started his career with Midland Montagu London (the predecessor of HSBC Investment Bank) on the Graduate Training Programme in 1988 and at various times worked in the UK and Greece mainly in Corporate and Merchant Banking.

He joined Citibank in 1993 and garnered experience from Citibank’s Emerging Markets business focusing on businesses beyond Africa and became Vice President in charge of all cross border/international deals for Africa in 1996.

In 1998, he joined Nomura International in London as a Director for Investment Banking for Africa.

After re-joining Citibank in 2000, he was moved to Nigeria and Ivory Coast in 2001 as Executive Director covering Nigeria and West Africa and was a board member of Citibank Nigeria from 2001 to 2006.

He also served as Citibank’s Director & Regional Head Sub-Sahara Africa Corporate Finance & Investment Banking based in South Africa from 2002 to 2006.

He started his own investment advisory firm in 2007 but left briefly to join Ecobank Transnational Inc as Head of Ecobank Capital from 2010 to 2012 and was also a member of the Group Executive Committee, the top executive body for overall direction of the Ecobank Group. Since 2012, he has been running his firm focusing on inward cross border transactions across the African continent.

He currently serves as Chairman of the Africa Risk Capacity Pan African Insurance Company (ARC Ltd) and is also the Chairman of its Finance and Investment Committee. ARC Ltd is a financial affiliate of the African Risk Capacity, a specialised agency of the African Union (AU), an initiative designed to improve current responses to climate-related food security emergencies.