Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI) has set up an office in Angola. This comes after it obtained authorization from the Banco Nacional de Angola (the Central Bank of Angola) to operate a representative office in Luanda. Arnold Ekpe, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ecobank Group said his outfit has been working on this for a long time and were pleased that it has established an office in Angola. “It represents a landmark approval which launches Ecobank’s presence in one of the fastest growing markets in Africa.” He said the opening of the office in Luanda fits conveniently with Ecobank’s strategic aspirations in the Southern Africa development Corporation region as well as within Lusophone Africa where it has operating affiliates in Sao Tome, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. He indicated that the focus of the representative office is to undertake promotional and liaison activities on behalf of the Ecobank group and to explore business opportunities for their numerous customers clients. Some of the key areas of interest to the group include correspondent banking, trade financing, payments and transfers in addition to marketing services to Angola businesses in the rest of Africa and African businesses wishing to do business in Angola. Incorporated in Lome, Togo, ETI is the parent company of the leading independent regional banking group in Africa. It currently operates in 30 African countries, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi and Cameroon. The rest include Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Democratic Republic), Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana and Guinea Bissau. Others are Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia. The group is also represented in France through its affiliates EBI S.A and has presence in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where it holds a licence for a representative office but not yet operational. ETI is listed on the stock exchange in Lagos, Accra and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). The group is owned by more than 180,000 local and international institutional and individual shareholders and has over 11,000 employees from 31 different countries in over 750 branches and offices. In a related development, Ecobank Ghana Limited has appointed Awuraa Abena Safoa Afriyie Asafo-Boakye as the new secretary. She was the former Human Resource Director of the bank and takes over from Morgan Fianko Asiedu. Her appointment took effect from June 14, 2010. Mrs Asafo-Boakye holds an LLB degree in Law from the University of Ghana, Legon and an Executive MBA (Finance). Source: Business Guide/Ghana