Barclays Bank of Ghana has announced the appointment of Abena Osei Poku by the Board of Directors, as Managing Director of the Bank, taking over from Patience Akyianu who will be leaving the bank at the end of September this year.
Abena’s appointment, if approved by the Bank of Ghana, will be effective October 1, 2018, and she will work closely with Patience over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition and handover process.
Abena’s appointment reflects the strength of our leadership talent pool across businesses, which has enabled us to promote from within existing ranks.
Until now, Abena has served as Head of Coverage North for Corporate and Investment Banking business, Rest of Africa. She was appointed to this role in early 2017 and has been covering the CIB cluster markets of Kenya, Tanzania (NBC and BBT), Uganda and Ghana.
Abena brings to this role over 15 years of Pan-African experience in banking gained across several regions, including West, Central and East Africa.
She previously served as Corporate Director at Barclays Bank Ghana with oversight responsibility for Barclays Bank Uganda.
She has been credited with the turnaround of the Corporate Banking business in Barclays Ghana.
Abena’s experience includes origination and structuring of corporate and investment banking deals, client coverage, risk management, strategy and implementation, talent development and change management.
Her work has been acknowledged through numerous awards including Best Corporate Bank in Ghana in 2015, Best Cash Management business in Ghana and Best GDO business in Uganda.
She joined Barclays Bank from Standard Chartered Bank in 2010, where she held various senior roles including regional responsibility in Risk Management for West and Central Africa and Director, Global Corporates Ghana.
She holds an MBA from the Manchester Business School (United Kingdom).