Our highly esteemed and intellectually-diversified Board of Directors decides the overall policy of the firm and consists of:

Jim Ovia (Chairman)

Mr. Ovia is the pioneer Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Bank Plc. He has a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Louisiana, Monroe, Louisiana, USA (formerly Northern University, Louisiana) and obtained a Bachelor's degree in
Business Administration at the Southern University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA.

Jim's professional banking experience spans over 27 years, beginning with his employment in 1973 as a clerk in Barclays Bank DCO, Lagos. He worked as a part-time computer operator in Baton Rouge Bank, USA in 1977.

He held management positions at International Merchant Bank (IMB) under the technical management of First National Bank of Chicago (1980-1987); and Merchant Bank of Africa (MBA) under the technical partnership of Bank of America (1987-1990).

The Federal Government of Nigeria conferred Mr. Ovia with the National award of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) in November 2000.

He received the ZIK Award for Professional Leadership in April, 1999, making him the first professional banker to win such an award. The ZIK prize is an annual event in honour of the Late Right Honourable Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria's first President.

Godwin Emefiele- Director

Mr. Emefiele is currently the Deputy Managing Director of Zenith Bank Plc. He graduated with B. Sc Finance from University of Nigeria, Nsukka and has an MBA Finance from the same University.

A former University don, Godwin lectured at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and University of Port-Harcourt before moving to the Corporate Banking Division of Nigerian-American Merchant Bank Limited. He also worked for Industrial Bank Limited (Merchant Bankers) before moving over
to Zenith Bank Plc as one of its pioneer staff in 1990. He has over 24 years working experience out of which over 19 years has been spent in the banking sector.

Peter Amangbo- Director

Mr. Amangbo is an Executive Director in Zenith Bank Plc. He graduated with a B.Eng. in Electrical/Electronics from University of Benin in 1988 and holds an MBA. He worked in the Audit and Business Advisory Group of PriceWaterhouseCoopers for 4 years before joining Zenith Bank Plc in 1993. He has over 16years experience in financial services which include Financial Control, Strategy, Tax Planning, Corporate Banking, Treasury and Investment Banking. He is an alumnus of INSEAD, Fountanbleu.

Elias Igbin-Akenzua - Director

Mr. Igbin-Akenzua is an Executive Director of Zenith Bank Plc. He graduated with a B.Sc. Accounting in 1988 from the University of Benin and holds an MBA. He has banking experience spanning Treasury/ Financial Institutions, Oil & Gas and Corporate Banking Departments. A fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), he worked with the Audit/Financial service arm of PricewaterHouseCoopers for 4 years before moving over to Zenith Bank Plc in January 1993. He has over 19 years Postgraduate experience out of which he spent 15 years in the
banking industry. He is an Alumnus of Executive Education at INSEAD, Fountanbleu, France and Wharton Graduate School of Business, USA.

Apollos Ikpobe - Director

He is an Executive Director in Zenith Bank Plc. He holds a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accounting from the Yaba College of Technology and graduated with a Distinction in 1987. He also has a Masters in Banking and Finance from the University of Lagos. He is a Fellow of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. He joined the service of the Bank in February 1992. He has over 17 years of Postgraduate experience out of which he spent 5 years in reputable Audit firms and about 12 years in the banking industry.

Osadebe Osakwe - Director

Mr. Osakwe holds a B. Sc in Accountancy (1990) and Masters Degree in Banking and Finance (1992) from the University of Lagos and is also an associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
He has participated in various offshore and local training in credit, Corporate Finance, Investment Banking, Treasury, Export Finance and General Management and Pension Funds Management. Registered by The Securities & Exchange Commission as a capital market operator, Osadebe
is an Alumnus of the Advanced Management programme of the Lagos Business School and the Strategy and Corporate Finance programme of the London Business School. Mr. Osakwe's interest includes strategy and entrepreneurship in a large organization and Leadership and Coaching for
Change and Value creation.

Ebenezer Onyeagwu - Director

Mr. Onyeagwu is a General Manager and Group Zonal Head in charge of Ikeja business zone of Zenith Bank Plc. He is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School and Wharton Executive Education Programme of the University of Pennsylvania. He has a Higher National Diploma (HND)
certificate in Accounting and a Masters decree in Business Administration (MBA). He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. He has over 16years banking experience spanning various departments including internal audit, Branch and project
management.

China Onyemelukwe - Director

Mr. China Onyemelukwe has over 18 years of finance and investment banking experience across all areas of investment banking, including corporate finance, trading, asset management and private equity/venture capital. His most recent investment banking position was at Merrill Lynch in New York and London, where he headed the equity-linked desk in Merrill Lynch Capital Markets and traded equities, bonds, derivatives and currencies. He also worked with the corporate finance team on pricing and syndications of IPOs and secondary issues. He subsequently worked as a securities trading & investment adviser to a number of hedge funds and private equity firms in Europe and the US. China began his career 21 years ago in 1986, in Nigeria- at Chase Merchant Bank (a
subsidiary of Chase Manhattan Bank).

China is an alumnus of University of Benin, the London School of Economics and Harvard University and holds a Masters Degree in International Finance. He is currently authoring a book on African
capital markets in conjunction with Harvard Business School.