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Below is a list of Zenith Bank's Executive Team
To achieve the vision of the Board, it is necessary and crucial to have a team of dynamic, competent and vibrant people with unquestionable integrity and loyalty to drive the Bank towards its strategic vision and direction. Therefore Zenith Bank Côte d'Ivoire has in place a management team of:
Mr. Cédric Tano is a visionary banking leader with over 20 years of experience in treasury management, financial markets, and balance sheet optimization across West Africa. Since March 2025, he has served as Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Bank Côte d’Ivoire, driving the bank’s growth, innovation, and performance strategy while placing client experience and operational excellence at the heart of its priorities.
Before joining Zenith Bank, he was Regional Director of Treasury at ORABANK Côte d’Ivoire and its subsidiaries, covering several key countries in the region. He led liquidity optimization, interbank funding, and the development of tailored foreign exchange and trade finance solutions. He also served as Acting Deputy Managing Director, strengthening his executive leadership.
Recognized for his vision and expertise, Mr. Tano combines financial acumen, risk management, and the ability to deliver sustainable value. He holds an MBA in Finance and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Indiana State University (United States) and is bilingual in English and French, with working knowledge of Spanish.
Under his leadership, Zenith Bank Côte d’Ivoire is positioned as an agile, innovative, and forward-looking bank, providing clients and partners with high-performing, reliable solutions tailored to today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.
Edwin Ofogba is a distinguished banking executive with over 30 years of experience in the Nigerian financial sector. He served as an Assistant General Manager and Zonal Head at Zenith Bank Plc. In another capacity, he served as the Chairman of the Zonal Credit Committee, where he orchestrated high-level credit appraisals and spearheads business development strategies for the Zone. His career at Zenith Bank is marked by a consistent trajectory of leadership, having successfully managed major branches in Lagos and Benin City, where he was responsible for driving multi-sector relationship management, operational excellence, and year-on-year profitability.
A specialist in building high-performance sales cultures, he has a proven track record of pioneering new bank branches and transforming existing ones into profit centers. From his early days at First Bank of Nigeria to leadership roles at Standard Trust Bank and Oceanic Bank, he has mastered the art of balancing aggressive marketing drive with rigorous financial analysis and risk mitigation. His expertise extends beyond local branch management to zonal-level deputization, where he has been instrumental in aligning regional operations with corporate goals and supervising complex lending portfolios across diverse economic sectors.
His professional success is underpinned by an elite academic and international training background. He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Strategy & Innovation from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, MSc in Banking and Finance from the University of Benin and a graduate of Economics from the University of Ibadan. He is a Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Honorary Member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria. He further refined his leadership skill through executive programs at the London School of Economics and Lagos Business School. Additionally, his recent attainment of the French language certification reflects his commitment to professional versatility and readiness for cross-border engagement within the African banking landscape.
Calliste is a high-caliber finance executive with over 17 years of experience driving profitability and strategic growth across the African financial services landscape. He served as an Investment Officer at Genesis Fund & Asset Management (GFAM), where he led 360-degree support for SMEs, overseeing the entire investment lifecycle from opportunity identification and complex financial modeling to term sheet negotiation and value creation.
His recent portfolio includes impactful projects in e-health, green energy, and agriculture, where he bridges the gap between local entrepreneurial potential and institutional investment standards.
His career is distinguished by a decade-long tenure at NSIA Participations Holding, where he rose to the rank of Head of Finance and Consolidation (Deputy Group CFO grade). In this role, he was a central figure in the group’s expansion across 12 countries, coordinating responses to regional insurance regulators and playing a critical role in the group’s valuation process—working alongside Lazard Frères to manage inquiries from global giants like KKR and Swiss Re. A seasoned veteran of M&A and structured finance, he has successfully negotiated the securitization of 10 billion FCFA in debt and secured significant facilities from DFIs such as Proparco.
Mr Calliste holds a world-class academic pedigree, featuring an MBA from Nanyang Business School in Singapore, which included specialized residencies at The Wharton School and UC Berkeley Haas. This global perspective is complemented by an International Certificate in Corporate Finance from HEC Paris and a master’s in accounting. Whether refining financial models to save clients over $118 million in cumulative costs or leading due diligence for bank acquisitions, He combines meticulous analytical rigor with a bilingual, multicultural approach to navigating the complexities of the African market
Daniel Kouassi is an accomplished financial executive and Chief Risk Officer (CRO) with over 17 years of expertise in credit analysis, risk management, and regulatory compliance. Currently a member of the Executive Management at Banque d’Abidjan (BDA), he is responsible for the bank's entire risk architecture, including Credit, Market, Liquidity, and Operational risks. At BDA he was instrumental in building the Risk Department from inception, ensuring the bank’s internal policies and recovery plans align with the rigorous Basel II & III regulatory frameworks and the requirements of the WAEMU Banking Commission.
His career is marked by significant leadership roles within the BNP Paribas Group, where he spent over a decade refining his expertise across West and Central Africa. As the former Head of Monitoring and Control at BICICI and a Senior Credit Officer for the Sub-Saharan Africa Risk Platform, Daniel managed credit portfolios across six nations, including Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Gabon. He is a specialist in evaluating high-stakes sectors such as soft commodities (cocoa, coffee, cashew) and has a proven track record in implementing risk scoring models, stress-testing, and managing large-scale corporate and sovereign credit approvals.
Daniel holds an MBA in Banking and Finance from CESAG Dakar and a Master’s in Management from the Université de Cocody-Abidjan. His academic foundation is supported by elite professional certifications, including the Implementation of Basel II & III from the House of Training Luxembourg and specialized credentials in Infrastructure Finance and Private Equity from SDA Bocconi. Fluent in both French and English, Daniel combines deep technical knowledge of OHADA law and IFRS standards with a strategic ability to safeguard institutional stability while driving sustainable growth.
Mr. Hermann Achi is a highly experienced legal and tax expert with 21 years of professional experience in the complex regulatory environments of sub-Saharan Africa. He previously served as the Group Legal, Tax, and Regulatory Director at New Digital Africa (NDA), where he advised on international legal structuring, led critical administrative and judicial negotiations, and coordinated specialized legal teams. His career is marked by a successful transition: from a leading international consulting role at Deloitte—where he served as Legal and Tax Head in several regions and countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, and Gabon—to positions as Regional Senior Manager in the telecommunications sector for Airtel Gabon, followed by Head of Legal for Sub-Saharan Africa in the e-commerce sector.
His technical expertise covers a wide range of key financial functions, including legal, tax, and labor reviews, transfer pricing, and the management of administrative audits. He has personally managed projects exceeding 500 billion CFA francs. He has held key regional positions, such as Regional Senior Manager at Airtel, and has provided strategic advice to a prestigious portfolio of multinational companies, including BGFI Bank, UBA, Airtel Money, Diamond Bank, Banque Internationale du Bénin, Total Marketing, Shell, MTN, and Sanofi-Aventis, among others. His expertise is bolstered by a decade of living abroad and numerous assignments in more than 15 African countries (Ivory Coast, Gabon, Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Niger, Congo, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Cameroon, Tanzania, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Mali, Liberia, Gambia, Senegal, Kenya, South Africa), giving him in-depth knowledge of OHADA laws and regional tax optimization.
Beyond his technical expertise, he is a recognized leader and mentor, having successfully managed multinational and diverse teams of over 30 professionals. He has participated in numerous seminars on law and taxation in France, Tunisia, Senegal, Benin, and Nigeria. He has regularly spoken at seminars in Benin, Gabon, and Côte d'Ivoire, where he shares his expertise in oil taxation, restructuring transactions, and tax litigation. Whether facilitating the creation of microfinance institutions or finalizing transactions worth several billion CFA francs, his experience is a valuable asset.
In the area of securitization, he combines absolute legal rigor with a pragmatic business approach to ensure robust compliance and strong financial results.
Maimouna Sawane is a highly accomplished financial leader with over 15 years of international experience in auditing and risk management across the world’s leading financial hubs. More recently, she served as the Head of Internal Audit at a major oil and gas player in Côte d’Ivoire, she directed the entity’s risk-based audit planning and internal control frameworks. Her career is defined by a rigorous adherence to international audit standards and a proven ability to bridge the gap between complex regulatory requirements and best practices in operations, ensuring institutional integrity and financial transparency at the highest levels.
Before her current leadership role, Maimouna built an impressive portfolio at "Big Four" and global financial institutions, including Ernst & Young (EY) Paris and BDO Côte d’Ivoire. As a Banking Audit Team Leader, she spearheaded legal audit missions for major banking pools, defining sophisticated audit strategies and supervising multi-disciplinary teams. Her tenure at BNP Paribas—spanning Paris, London, and New York—as a Banking Analyst saw her conducting advanced quantitative research on hedge funds and investment strategies, while her early career at Standard & Poor’s London involved designing critical risk models for counterparty credit ratings.
Her technical expertise is anchored by an elite global education, holding a Specialized master’s in finance from ESCP Business School in Paris and a BSc in Investment and Financial Risk Management from Bayes (formerly Cass) Business School in London. This academic foundation provides her with deep mastery over risk analysis, company valuation, and corporate finance. Fully bilingual in French and English, she combines a "global-city" professional perspective with local market expertise, making her a formidable asset in navigating the evolving risk landscape of the banking sector.
Nanga Tenimbe Coulibaly is a visionary leader in the technology sector, he has over fifteen years of experience leading large-scale digital transformations and promoting financial inclusion in Côte d'Ivoire and West Africa. Former Chairman of the Expert Committee of the WAEMU Inter-Member Group (GIM UEMOA), which brings together the eight member countries of the Union, he spearheaded the strategic direction for electronic payments and regional interoperability.
In this capacity, he helped shape regional digital finance policies, supported regulatory harmonization, and fostered the emergence of innovative solutions that facilitate cross-border transactions. His recognized expertise makes him a key player in the integration and development of the digital ecosystem within the WAEMU.
Zenith Direct Customer Contact Centre
Email: info@zenithbank.com.ci
Address: SCI Wall Street, Avenue Noguès, Plateau, 25 BP 945 Abidjan 25, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.
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