Akweley Laryea is First National Bank’s new Head of Retail Banking

First National Bank Ghana has announced the appointment of Akweley Laryea as Head of Retail Banking.

This comes at a time when the bank is devoting significant time and effort to pursuing new and innovative opportunities that have tremendous opportunity for value creation for the retail business.

Mrs. Laryea has over 21 years’ experience in banking across retail, service delivery strategy, talent development, change management, risk management and governance.

She will be leading the bank’s market selection and customer propositions. Her role will also involve the development of a service-based sales force for the bank.

Prior to joining First National Bank, Mrs. Laryea was Head of Consumer, Private and Business Banking at Standard Chartered Bank Gambia, where she led the transformation of the retail business by enhancing the client value proposition and implementing new products and platforms.

She had previously worked with Standard Chartered Bank Ghana (SCB Ghana) for over 17 years. She joined SCB Ghana as a Management Trainee and rose through the ranks in various capacities within the Technology & Operations and Organization Learning functions.

She then moved into Retail Banking where she held various senior management roles within Ghana and the West African cluster.

She also served as Chairperson of the bank’s Diversity and Inclusion Council from 2011 to 2016 where she championed a number of inclusion initiatives, including the launch of the Future Leaders Employee Network.

Another key achievement was her leadership in the successful partnership between the bank, the Ghana Federation of the Disabled and Sightsavers Ghana that led to an increase in employment opportunities for persons with disabilities.

Dominic Adu, Chief Executive of First National Bank believes Akweley Laryea is the best person to lead the bank’s retail unit as she has a proven track record in managing and growing result-oriented teams that have achieved growth, profit and operational efficiency.

“We believe the bank is well-positioned during these tough economic conditions, and we are looking forward to Akweley's leadership in the retail function to help grow our market share while maintaining the highest level of service and best-in-class customer experience at all our touchpoints,” Mr. Adu says.

Akweley Laryea holds an Executive MBA from the Ghana Institute of Management & Public Administration (GIMPA) and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Economics from the University of Ghana.

Commenting on her appointment as First National Bank’s Head of Retail Banking, she said: “I have inherited a high functioning team that has progressively implemented a lot of the retail banking strategy of First National Bank over the last year and have achieved over-the-edge results. I believe I can spur them on to even greater successes for the offerings on our retail banking portfolio.”

Akweley Laryea’s appointment is effective March 8, 2022.

About First National Bank

First National Bank Ghana is a subsidiary of South Africa’s FirstRand Group which is the largest bank by market capitalisation listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange – Africa’s largest bourse. First National Bank is leveraging off the experience and financial muscle of its parent company to excel in Ghana.

The bank head quartered in South Africa also has a presence in Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia, Kenya, Angola, Tanzania and in Nigeria as Rand Merchant Bank (RMB- the corporate banking arm of FirstRand Group).