Honestly, what Arnold Ekpe did with Ecobank was wild. He was basically the guy who took a regular bank and turned it into this big pan-African thing, which wasn’t something you saw much of before. From what I’ve read, Ekpe really believed in making the bank available in lots of different African countries, not just keeping it in one spot. I guess he was obsessed with making Ecobank into the go-to bank if you did business anywhere from Nigeria to Ghana or way down south.

One thing I think is cool is that he kept pushing for expansion even when stuff was rough — like during the global financial crisis. I can’t imagine the pressure, but he managed to keep Ecobank steady. I read that he was always about having strong systems in place and picking local teams who actually knew their countries and what people wanted. That’s probably how they survived when other banks had to bail. Honestly, it just shows that taking risks but also knowing your market totally pays off sometimes.