Abena Osei-Poku, (née: Abena Osei), is a

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

ian corporate executive who is the Managing Director of

Ecobank Ghana Ecobank Ghana PLC is a commercial bank in Ghana. It is one of the commercial banks licensed by the Bank of Ghana, the national banking regulator. In 2022, the bank retained its position as the largest bank in Ghana in the 2023 Ghana Banking Surv ...

and Regional Executive for the Anglophone West Africa (AWA) Region of the Ecobank Group. She was the former

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Absa Bank Ghana Absa Bank Ghana Limited (ABGL), formerly known as Barclays Bank of Ghana Limited, is a commercial bank in Ghana, licensed by the Bank of Ghana, the country's central bank and national banking regulator. ABGL is a subsidiary of Absa Group Limi ...

(formerly ''Barclays Bank of Ghana''), where she served as the managing Director for five years since September 2018 to December 2023. Before that, she worked at Absa in South Africa, where she was responsible for Corporate & Investment Banking in

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

at the level of Managing Director.

Background and education

She was born in Ghana around 1971. She attended Ghanaian elementary and secondary schools. She was admitted to the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It is the oldest public university in the country. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the British colony of the Gold Coast ...

, graduating in 1994 with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in

Economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

and

Statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

. Later, she received a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular ...

from the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

in the United Kingdom.

Career

She started her banking career at

Standard Chartered Bank Standard Chartered PLC is a British multinational bank with operations in wealth management, Wholesale banking, corporate and investment banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retai ...

in 2002, working there for seven years. In 2009, she transferred to

Barclays Bank Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

. She spent part of the next nine years serving as an executive director at Barclays Bank Ghana and the rest of the time in South Africa, serving as an executive of the

Barclays Africa Group Absa Group Limited, commonly known and stylized simply as absa (formerly the Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (ABSA) until 2005 and Barclays Africa Group Limited until 2018), is a multinational banking and financial services conglomerate ba ...

, responsible for operations in Africa, outside of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. In September 2018, she was appointed as the managing director of Barclays Bank of Ghana, replacing

Patience Akyianu Patience Akyianu is a Ghanaian Banker. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer, Ghana at Hollard Insurance, and a former managing director of Barclays Bank Ghana (now Absa Bank Ltd). Education Akyianu completed her secondary school educ ...

, who left the bank. In February 2020, Abena oversaw the transformation of Barclays Bank Ghana to Absa Bank Ghana. In January 2024, she was appointed as the

Managing Director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and the Regional Executive for the Anglophone West Africa (AWA) Region.

Other considerations

She has in the past sat on the boards of several enterprises, including (a) Airtel Mobile Money Limited (b) Barclays Africa Group (c) United Kingdom and Ghana Chamber of Commerce and (d) Country Kitchen Limited. As of October 2021, she is the chairperson of the advisory board of the College of Health Sciences at the

. She also serves as the vice chairperson of the board of the

Ghana Stock Exchange The Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) is the principal stock exchange of Ghana. The exchange was incorporated in July 1989 with trading commencing in 1990. It currently lists 42 stock, equities (from 37 company, companies) and 2 corporate bonds. All typ ...

, and is a member of the executive councils of the

Ghana Association of Banks Ghana Association of Banks is the Ghanaian umbrella body and trade association that governs and provides advocacy for Ghanaian The Ghanaian people are a nation originating in the Gold Coast (region), Ghanaian Gold Coast. Ghanaians predominant ...

and the National Banking College. In addition, she is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Ghana and an honorary member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

References

External links

‘It Was Necessary’ – Barclays Bank MD Hails Banking Sector Cleanup
As of 22 January 2020.
Absa Bank MD, Abena Osei-Poku named one of Africa’s most influential female leaders
As of 26 May 2021. {{DEFAULTSORT:Osei-Poku, Abena 1971 births Living people Ghanaian bankers 21st-century Ghanaian businesswomen 21st-century Ghanaian businesspeople Ghanaian chief executives University of Ghana alumni Alumni of the University of Manchester Absa people Ghanaian women business executives Ghanaian business executives

Background and education

Career

Other considerations

See also

References

External links