Kofi Amoabeng Retires From UT Bank

Kofi Amoabeng

Prince Kofi Amoabeng, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UT Bank and co-founder of the UT Group of Companies, has announced his retirement from the bank effective 31st December, 2015.

Mr Amoabeng would be succeeded by Stephen Antwi–Asimeng, the current Chief Operations Officer.

Speaking to journalists yesterday in Accra, Mr Amoabeng, 63, said he had attained the retirement age.

He stated that the board had put in place a successive plan together with a new team to ensure that the bank operates smoothly in his absence.

“The UT journey has been a fantastic one. If I look at all the acknowledgements, awards, recognitions and things like that, it has been a good Ghanaian story. I expect that as I go out, UT would still be a darling company to Ghanaians. I’m happy about what we have been able to build and I know the story is going to continue,” Mr Amoabeng he said.

Mr Amoabeng wanted to retire about three years ago, but the board prevented him from doing so because the bank was facing several challenges.

The bank’s foreign investors were not in favour of the move.

“We have put good plans in place to be delivered by the new team and I have faith in the team and their ability to develop the bank,” the outgoing CEO said.

Mr. Amoabeng and Joseph Nsonamoah, his business partner, started UT Bank as a non-bank financial institution in 1997, successfully transforming it into a universal bank with a focus on Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs).

Joseph Nsonamoah, Board Chairman of the bank, said his outfit was ready to let “Kofi Amoabeng go because the board and Kofi himself think that the new team can lead the bank.”

Despite posting losses in the first quarter of 2015, UT Bank’s interim financial results for the third quarter of this year showed a steady improvement.

Mr Amoabeng, who would attend board meetings of the bank after his retirement, added that a new Loan Recovery Unit had been established with aggressive debt collection targets driven by a major internal effort to institutionalize a loan recovery culture in the bank.