Ebenezer Essoka, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank addresses CIDA students

The Banking System Guru

By Lizzy McDaniels

Ebenezer Essoka

CIDA City Campus is no ordinary university. It’s a unique institution of higher learning in that it exposes its students to a variety of leaders, entrepreneurs and influential individuals in different fields to motivate and prepare them for life in the corporate world. On 28th September, CIDA brought one of the most influential men in the banking system, Ebenezer Essoka, to address the students.

Chief Executive Officer, South Africa and Area General Manager Southern Africa of Standard Chartered Bank, Ebenezer has over 28 years of banking experience, holds a BSc and an MBA in Finance as well as a Diploma in International Business from Seton Hall University, New Jersey, USA. Furthermore, he has attended senior development programmes at INSEAD, The London Business School, Templeton College, Oxford University and Cambridge University / IFC Sustainability Programme.

With so much influence and experience, who wouldn't want to listen to him? The hall was fully packed with eager students waiting to absorb information and advice from this remarkable man.

Ebenezer recounted how he had always wanted to become a leader and he was very focused on his dream.  Just 7 years after joining Standard Chartered Bank in 1986,  he became the first African to be appointed Chief Executive Officer of a Standard Chartered Bank subsidiary, after 135 years of Group operations in the continent.

'Leadership is responsibility'

‘Leadership is responsibility’ he said, ‘be professional enough to stand relevant anywhere, any time, without a complex.  If there be any complex at all, it should be a superiority complex.  This can be achieved by studying regularly, whether one is still in a formal school or not. You need to keep yourself updated with the current trends.’

Further, he encouraged students to be involved in community services, which, he said, 'guarantees the sustainability of one’s well being.'  Finally, Ebenezer advised students to take a stand in the banking system, arguing that for as long as banks are owned by politicians, people will never know financial freedom, ‘banks only become successful when they are owned by entrepreneurs’.

Married with twin teenage boys, there’s no doubt that his family misses him as he travels all around the world on business. Still as energetic as ever at over 50 years of age, his family remains his inspiration and motivation.

For us, meeting Ebenezer was truly inspirational, an experience never to be forgotten.