Africa-Press – Namibia. PAN-AFRICAN micro-lender Letshego Holdings Limited has appointed a new group chief executive officer (CEO) despite a pending court challenge in which dismissed CEO Andrew Okai wants his job back.
Letshego board chairperson Enos Banda affirmed the appointment of Abakwe Monyatsi as CEO of the group that has offices in 11 African countries, including Namibia, where it operates a commercial bank.
“The appointment is with immediate effect, although it is subject to regulatory approvals,” Banda said in a statement issued from the group’s headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana, on Monday.
Monyatsi first took over the reins as acting group CEO on 4 May this year after the dismissal of Ghanaian Okai over what the board described as “an irreparable breakdown in trust and confidence between the two parties”.
Okai denied any wrongdoing and dragged the company to court, seeking an urgent hearing of the case.
According to extensive reports carried by the Botswana publication The Business Weekly & Review last month, the estranged Ghanaian banker is claiming unfair dismissal and wanted the Botswana Industrial Court to declare it unlawful.
Details emerged in court that behind Okai’s dismissal was a substantial, multimillion-pula transaction that would have seen Letshego’s controlling stake being sold to a foreign company, had Okai not ‘blocked’ the transaction which the board wanted sealed.
Judge Isaac Bahuma, who presided over the case, reserved judgement on hearing the case as an urgent matter.
The Namibian could not establish how far the case has progressed.
According to the statement, as the group’s chief operating officer, Monyatsi led the inclusive finance entity’s digitalisation of systems and operations for the last two years, before replacing Okai in an interim capacity.
The board further described Monyatsi as a “well-rounded and experienced pan-African regional banker, with demonstrated tech and digital-savvy expertise having spearheaded and developed innovation and virtual channel strategies in his previous role as Absa group’s managing executive for alternative channels”.
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