Zenith Bank's founder Jim Ovia has retired as chairman after 36 years of building Nigeria's most profitable lender

Jim Ovia started Zenith Bank in June 1990 with $4 million in shareholders' funds and a conviction that Nigeria needed a bank built differently. He stepped back from the chairmanship of the institution he created on May 5, 2026, having watched it grow into one of Africa's largest financial groups.

Zenith Bank Plc announced Ovia's retirement in a corporate notice issued in Lagos on May 5, confirming that he had completed the mandatory 12-year tenure permitted under the Central Bank of Nigeria's corporate governance guidelines for commercial banks, financial holding companies and related institutions. He became chairman on July 16, 2014, having previously served as the bank's pioneer group managing director and chief executive from 1990 to 2010, a 20-year run during which he built Zenith from a startup into a nationally systemic institution.

The board approved the appointment of Engr. Mustafa Bello as his successor at a meeting on April 27. The CBN has confirmed its approval of the appointment. Bello joined the Zenith board on Dec. 29, 2017 and is currently its longest-serving director. He graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in civil engineering from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1978, winning the Shell prize for best project and thesis in the engineering faculty that year. He served in the Nigerian Army's Directorate of Quartering and Engineering Service, worked as a senior civil engineer with the Niger State Housing Corporation from 1980 to 1983, and went on to serve as Nigeria's federal minister of commerce between 1999 and 2002. He was subsequently appointed executive secretary and chief executive of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, a role he held from November 2003 to February 2014.

The institution Bello is now chairing is unrecognizable from the one Ovia founded. Zenith Bank closed 2025 with interest income of N3.6 trillion (approximately $2.3 billion), up from N2.7 trillion (approximately $1.7 billion) in 2024. Pre-tax profit reached N1.26 trillion (approximately $810 million), a 4.78% decline tied to the resolution of COVID-19-era forbearance liabilities under a CBN directive applied across the banking sector. Post-tax profit settled at N1.04 trillion (approximately $670 million). The bank opened 2026 sharply, posting an unaudited pre-tax profit of N360.92 billion (approximately $232 million) for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026, a 2.87% year-on-year increase, with post-tax profit rising modestly by 0.69% to N314.02 billion (approximately $202 million).

Ovia's departure from the chair closes the last formal chapter of his active stewardship of the institution. He served as managing director for 20 years, stepped back, returned as chairman for 12 more, and leaves behind a bank listed on both the Nigerian Exchange and the London Stock Exchange, with operations across West Africa and in London and Dubai. Forbes Africa once called him the Godfather of Banking. The CBN's governance clock has now run out his tenure. The bank he built keeps running.

The board credited Ovia's commitment to governance standards and stakeholder value creation as central to Zenith's positioning in the financial services sector. Dame Adaora Umeoji remains group managing director and chief executive.