Dr. Walton Ekundayo Gilpin, Managing Director of Rokel Commercial Bank, has been named one of Africa’s Top 25 Financial Leaders. The African Leadership Organisation officials, Mr. King Richard, Head of Editorial and Content Development, and Mr. Moses Samuel,
The business manager gave the presentation in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Mr.King Richard emphasised the need for Africans to strive to do more to place Africa in the spotlight at all times in his address read at the bank’s headquarters, which had all of the management team in attendance. He stated that the story of Africa and Africans cannot be left to non-Africans, which is why the African Leadership Organisation founded the African Leadership Magazine,UK, which focuses on Afro-centric content that tells the authentic African story as it should be told by everybody.
While congratulating the MD for his emergence as one of Africa’s top 25 financial leaders’ list which includes the president of the African Development Bank, Dr. Femi Adesina; the finance minister of Madagascar, Rindra Hasimbelo Rabarinirinarison; the finance minister of Nigeria, Zainab Ahmed; the governor of the Bank of South Sudan, Hon. Johnny Ohisa Damian,
and others. The Rokel Bank MD is one of just three bank CEOs on the list, as well as the only one from Sierra Leone. The other two are Adesola Adeduntan, CEO of First Bank Nigeria, and Abdulmajid Nsekela, CEO of CRDB Bank Tanzania. Mr. King reminded the bank executives at the meeting that “to whom much is given, much is required,” emphasising the importance of going for training and retraining for everybody. He also mentioned that a meeting in the United Kingdom would be held shortly, which would be
extremely beneficial to those who could attend.
He added that the process that brought about the selection of the Top 25 Financial Leaders was a very rigorous one, saying
“The listees emerged through a 2-step points-based selection process that included nominations by a global pool of writers as well as experts in the African banking and finance industry, leading to ALM’s editorial board’s final review of the nominations and submissions, using supporting evidence and voting considerations in their final decisions to decide those who emerge on the listing of the ALM Top 25 African Finance Leaders 2023. The complete list was unveiled during the African Finance Leaders’ Networking Cocktail on April 13th, 2023, at the National Press Club, Washington, DC, USA, on the margins of the annual World Bank Group and IMF 2023 Spring meetings, adding that those who made the list received their certificates at the event. However, Dr. Gilpin’s certificate had to be brought to him in Freetown, Sierra Leone, because he missed the occasion.
Mr. King further gave a background on the prestigious African Leadership Magazine.
“African Leadership Magazine is published by African Leadership (UK) Limited, a company registered in the United Kingdom (Company No. 07435198). The magazine focuses on bringing the best of Africa to a global audience, telling the African story from an African perspective, and at the same time seeking solutions to the peculiar challenges being faced by the continent today. Since its maiden edition in August 2008, African Leadership Magazine has grown to become a leading pan-African flagship leadership-focused publication read by over 580,000 targeted international investors, business executives, government policymakers, and multilateral agencies across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, Europe, and the US. It is distributed at major international and African leadership events around the world”.
Mr. Moses Samuel, for his part, stated that the certificate recognises Dr. Gilpin as one of Africa’s most important financial leaders, poised to rewrite the African financial story to the benefit of the continent and its people.
In his acceptance speech, Dr. Gilpin stated he had no foreknowledge that such a ranking was going on, adding that the Top 25 African Financial Leaders’ certificate is evidence of the bank’s committed financial leaders’ hard work, adding that it is a call to greater service, and thanking all stakeholders for providing the enabling environment for the bank, the people, and the nation in general.
Additionally, he expressed his profound appreciation to the presidency, the Ministry of Finance, and others for their unwavering support, revealing that being the only bank in the country to have earned such an international ranking has proven the adage very correct that Rokel Bank is indeed the bank of choice!
