Heritage Bank appoints Akinola George-Taylor as acting managing director

Following the receipt of the approval of the board of directors of Heritage Bank and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the bank is poised for its next phase of transformation.

The bank on Monday announced the appointment of George-Taylor as the acting managing director, who will be overseeing all Heritage’s banking operations across Nigeria. He will take over from Ifie Sekibo who has served his 10 years tenure at the bank.

As an experienced banker with over two decades working in the banking and financial services sector, Akinola George-Taylor has a proven track record in managing multi-billion Naira operations. He started his banking career in 1993 with GTBank where George-Taylor rose to the position of executive director in charge of the public sector group, Abuja and North Central. Whilst at the bank, he has held various positions in different business sectors.

He was also the managing director of GTBank in Sierra Leone between 2005 and 2009. In addition to George-Taylor’s appointment as acting managing director, Osepiribo Ben-Willie and George Oko-Oboh were also announced executive directors.

Osepiribo Ben-Willie is an accomplished banker with over two decades experience of which she has been leading business transformation initiatives at various levels within the financial service space. Ben-Willie is currently the Directorate Head South-South, South-East and private wealth management team in Heritage Bank Plc. She has worked in the following banking institutions Credite Bank Nigeria Limited, Diamond Bank, Zenith Bank and Stanbic IBTC.

George Oko-Oboh currently heads the Abuja and North directorate business of Heritage Bank Plc where he plays a pivotal role in the business growth and daily operations of all businesses and transactions as it relates to his area of supervision. Oko-Oboh is an accomplished financial services professional with over two decades of banking experience functioning in various leading business roles spanning Retail, SME, Commercial, Public Sector, Collections, Funding Advisory and Corporate Negotiations.

The newly appointed acting managing director and his team of executive directors commenced their respective tenors on Monday 12th September 2022.

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.