The fate of the current Group Chief Executive of ECOBANK, Thierry Tanoh as to whether he can still keep his job going forward still  hangs in the balance.

Shareholders of the Bank at an emergency meeting in Lome in Togo failed to vote on a resolution which could have forced the Group Chief Executive to step down.

This is despite calls at the emergency meeting for him to step down.

Mr. Tanoh managed to keep his job for now, because the biggest institutional investor in the bank, the public Investment Corporation of South Africa, dropped a motion, to create a seven member board in place of the current board which has12 members. This would have resulted in Mr. Tanoh stepping down as chief executive.

However, on the current board, the shareholders said they could still be at post until June.

Although most of the directors at the bank  have managed to keep their jobs, after the  meeting which was initially seen by many analysts as a make or break  for the Bank, some industry watchers say the bank might have do more repair  to its damaged reputation.

It is also unclear whether the board would reconvene meeting which to take on a request by the current executive directors of ECOBANK for Mr. Tanoh to be removed as Chief Executive.

However there were calls at the emergency meeting for Mr. Tanoh to resign rather than being forced out.

The bank was forced to hold the emergency meeting following a directive from the Securities and Exchange Commission from Nigeria  following some corporate governance flaws at the bank.  

Meanwhile, an Annual General Meeting is expected in June where a decision would be taken on the current board.  

In a related development, Ecobank shareholders meeting at an Extraordinary General Meeting passed the Governance Action Plan proposed by the Board of Directors in compliance with the recommendations of the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria. This was contained in a joint report by SEC and the international firm, KPMG.

According to the statement issued by a ECOBANK, the meeting also passed resolutions to amend the Company’s Articles of Association.

Under the new Articles of Association, ETI shall not undertake any acquisition, merger or disposal of the Company’s assets whose value is equal to or above 20% of the book value of the Company without the approval of a simple majority of the shareholders present in a General Meeting.

Shareholders voted to limit the maximum size of the Board to fifteen (15) members, and also ensured that no director serves more than nine years in total.

A resolution to authorise the Board of Directors to raise additional capital as the Company may require up to twenty percent (20%) of the current issued capital of the Company, without reference to the General Meeting, at any time within a period of three years from the date of its adoption was not passed.