The Board of Universal Merchant Bank (UMB) has appointed John Awuah as the new CEO of the bank.

Mr. Awuah is expected to lead "the next phase of the bank’s strategy", according to a release from the UMB's Marketing and Communications Department. 

"With his impressive wealth of experience in banking and finance, John will help UMB to be even more effective in serving our clients over the next few years. Prior to his appointment, he was an Executive Director of GCB Bank Limited where he successfully led the financial restructuring of the bank.  At GCB Bank, Mr. Awuah led a team in putting in place financial controls and performance management systems of the bank", the release signed by Yvonne Botchey, Director of Marketing and Communication said.

Mr. Awuah will be expected to work closely with the UMB Board of Directors in providing strategic counsel to UMB’s corporate and institutional clients on key issues.

He is expected to play a leading role in designing and implementing the new chapter of growth for the bank.

"I am excited to join the management group of UMB and look forward to continuing and enhancing the vision that the UMB team commenced about a year ago," stated Mr. Awuah.

Profile  of John Awuah (FCCA, ICA (Gh), MBA, Bcom)

Prior to joining UMB Mr. John Awuah was the Chief Finance Officer and Director of Finance of GCB Bank Limited.

He joined GCB from Ecobank Capital where he was the Group Chief Finance Officer and exercised leadership over the Finance Functions of Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.  

He has had senior management experience with Barclays Bank of Ghana, United Bank for Africa Ghana Ltd. (UBA Ghana Ltd.) and Standard Chartered Bank Ghana Ltd. with industry exposure from Tractor & Equipment (now Mantrac Ghana) and Western Castings Ltd. in various capacities.  

Mr. Awuah is a known subject matter expert on financial controls and governance in Ghana and has had many years of progressively responsible work experience in areas including Financial Control, Regulatory Reporting, Credit Control, Performance Management, Taxation, Market Risk Monitoring, Financial Accounting, Business Partnering, Business Analytics, Operational Risk and Corporate Strategy.

He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (UK) and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana). He holds Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Cape Coast (Ghana) with first-class honors and MBA (with merit) from the Oxford Institute of International Finance – Oxford Brookes University (UK).  

He serves on the Boards of Development Finance & Holdings Ltd, Prairie Volta Ltd. Oxford & Beaumont Solicitors, Radiance Pharmacy Limited, Codlogics Incorporated, J100 Coders and NCR Ghana Limited.

He shares a passion for nurturing and grooming young professionals.