CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

JOB DESCRIPTION

ROLE PROFILE

1. Job Identification

Job Title: Chief Executive Officer

Job Grade / Level: Chief Executive / Executive Management

Function / Business Area: Enterprise Leadership / Bank-wide Strategy and Operations

Reports To: Board of Directors, through the Board Chairperson

Direct Reports: Core Management Committee Members / Executive Leadership Team / Heads of key business, control and support functions

Total Reports: Entire workforce of the Bank through the approved organisational structure

Budget Managed: Full enterprise budget as approved by the Board

Language Requirement: Excellent command of English. Working knowledge of relevant local languages is desirable

2. Job Purpose

The Chief Executive Officer is the principal executive leader of Bank and is accountable to the Board of Directors for the safe, profitable, responsible and sustainable leadership of the Bank.

The CEO provides strategic, financial, operational, risk, people, customer, cultural, digital and stakeholder leadership to ensure that the Bank remains strong, trusted, compliant, competitive and future-ready.

The CEO is responsible for protecting what has made the institution strong, correcting weaknesses that could threaten future performance, satisfying the legitimate expectations of the Board, Bank of Ghana, ARB Apex Bank, shareholders, staff, customers and communities, and leading safe, disciplined and responsible growth beyond the current leadership era.

The CEO must preserve the Bank’s institutional legacy while leading its next phase of transformation, including capital strengthening, balance sheet repositioning, risk asset quality, deposit mobilisation, customer experience improvement, operational efficiency, digital adoption, ESG/CSR, people productivity, governance maturity, succession depth and stakeholder confidence.

3. Strategic Context of the Role

The Community Bank is a community-rooted regulated financial institution with a strong history, institutional memory, shareholder base, community legitimacy, customer trust and strategic growth ambition.

The CEO is expected to lead the Bank in a manner that balances:

1. Continuity and transformation
   Preserve the Bank’s legacy while leading necessary reforms.
2. Growth and safety
   Pursue profitability, deposit mobilisation and responsible lending without compromising risk discipline.
3. Community relevance and regulatory compliance
   Serve customers and communities while maintaining full compliance with laws, directives and prudential requirements.
4. People loyalty and performance accountability
   Build a motivated workforce while enforcing discipline, productivity and ethical conduct.
5. Shareholder value and depositor protection
   Strengthen returns and confidence while protecting the safety of depositors’ funds.

4. Key Responsibilities

4.1 Strategy, Vision and Institutional Stewardship

The CEO shall:

• Provide strategic advice to the Board on growth, capital, risk, expansion, customer experience, digital transformation, profitability and stakeholder positioning.
• Translate Board-approved strategy into annual business plans, budgets, departmental scorecards and measurable execution priorities.
• Preserve the institution’s identity while leading reforms required for future competitiveness.
• Ensure Management, branch leaders and staff understand the Bank’s vision, mission, strategy, values and performance priorities.
• Monitor economic, competitive, regulatory, technological and social developments affecting the Bank.
• Lead annual strategy reviews, performance reviews and management accountability sessions.
• Ensure disciplined execution of Board-approved strategy across departments, branches and units.

4.2 Financial Performance, Profitability and Balance Sheet Strength

The CEO shall:

• Lead the achievement of Board-approved financial performance targets.
• Ensure sound budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting and variance management.
• Strengthen income growth, cost discipline, branch profitability and balance sheet resilience.
• Monitor profitability, deposits, assets, liquidity, capital, cost-to-income ratio, return on assets and return on equity.
• Ensure accurate and timely financial reporting to the Board, regulators and shareholders.
• Take corrective action on underperforming branches, units, products and portfolios.
• Ensure growth does not compromise prudential soundness, liquidity or asset quality.

4.3 Capital, Liquidity and Prudential Management

The CEO shall:

• Lead implementation of the Bank’s capital management plan.
• Advise the Board on capital adequacy, capital raising, retained earnings, dividend policy and shareholder engagement.
• Ensure liquidity is managed within Board-approved and regulatory limits.
• Strengthen asset-liability management discipline.
• Ensure timely prudential reporting and prompt management action on emerging capital or liquidity pressures.
• Prepare the Bank for future capital, licensing, classification or regulatory reforms affecting the community banking sector.

4.4 Credit Risk, Portfolio Quality and Responsible Lending

The CEO shall:

• Ensure credit growth is aligned with Board-approved risk appetite and credit policy.
• Strengthen credit appraisal, approval, disbursement, monitoring, recovery and remedial management.
• Monitor portfolio-at-risk, non-performing loans, concentration risk, provisioning and recoveries.
• Ensure large, sensitive or emerging-risk portfolios receive focused management attention.
• Hold Credit, Risk, Recovery, Branch and Business teams accountable for loan quality and monitoring.
• Promote responsible lending to MSMEs, traders, farmers, salaried workers, groups and community-based customers.
• Ensure related-party lending, insider lending and conflict-of-interest risks are properly controlled.

4.5 Regulatory Compliance, Governance and Ethical Conduct

The CEO shall:

• Maintain a strong compliance culture across the Bank.
• Ensure timely submission of statutory, prudential, AML/CFT, governance and regulatory reports.
• Ensure prompt response to Bank of Ghana, ARB Apex Bank, auditor and regulator findings.
• Promote fit-and-proper conduct among key management personnel and staff.
• Ensure Management decisions comply with Board-approved policies, delegated authority and applicable law.
• Declare conflicts of interest and ensure management-level conflicts are properly disclosed and managed.
• Protect the independence of Internal Audit, Risk and Compliance functions.
• Ensure Board-approved policies are implemented, monitored and reviewed periodically.

4.6 Risk Management, Internal Controls and Operational Resilience

The CEO shall:

• Lead Management ownership of enterprise risk management.
• Ensure departments, branches and critical units maintain updated risk registers.
• Enforce internal control discipline across branches, operations, cash management, credit, IT, treasury, finance, procurement and HR.
• Ensure prompt closure of internal and external audit findings.
• Strengthen fraud prevention, incident reporting, root-cause analysis and corrective action.
• Maintain effective business continuity, disaster recovery and crisis response arrangements.
• Ensure operational losses and near misses are reported, investigated and remediated.
• Escalate material risks to the Board promptly.

4.7 Digital Transformation, Technology and Cybersecurity

The CEO shall:

• Lead the Bank’s digital transformation agenda in line with strategy, risk appetite and customer needs.
• Support automation of processes, digital channels, customer service systems, data analytics and productivity tools.
• Ensure technology investments are properly governed, budgeted, implemented and measured.
• Strengthen cybersecurity oversight, access control, incident response and business continuity.
• Ensure customer and institutional data are protected and processed responsibly.
• Encourage digital adoption by staff and customers.
• Oversee major technology vendors and service-level performance.
• Ensure digital growth does not expose the Bank to unmanaged fraud, cyber, operational or reputational risk.

4.8 Customer Experience, Market Growth and Financial Inclusion

The CEO shall:

• Set the tone for customer service excellence across branches, departments and channels.
• Lead deposit mobilisation, customer acquisition, customer retention and cross-selling strategies.
• Strengthen the Customer Experience function and service accountability system.
• Ensure complaints are tracked, resolved and used for service improvement.
• Promote financial inclusion, community banking and customer education.
• Ensure products remain relevant to local economic realities and customer needs.
• Strengthen brand visibility, relationship management and community trust.
• Ensure growth is customer-driven, ethical and sustainable.

4.9 People Leadership, Culture, Productivity and Succession

The CEO shall:

• Lead the Core Management Committee with clarity, courage, fairness and accountability.
• Ensure the right organisation structure, leadership capability and role clarity are in place.
• Drive a performance culture based on ownership, responsibility, accountability and discipline.
• Support succession planning, leadership development, talent management, workforce productivity and performance management.
• Ensure fair, lawful and policy-compliant people management practices.
• Promote staff engagement, wellness, safety and professional development.
• Address poor performance, misconduct and culture breaches decisively.
• Build a leadership pipeline for critical roles.
• Ensure Management models the Bank’s values consistently.

4.10 Stakeholder, Shareholder and Community Relations

The CEO shall:

• Maintain strong relationships with shareholders and community stakeholders.
• Support effective shareholder communication, AGM preparation and investor confidence.
• Engage traditional authorities, community leaders and local economic actors in support of the Bank’s mission.
• Represent the Bank professionally in public, industry and regulatory forums.
• Protect the Bank’s reputation through disciplined communication and ethical conduct.
• Build strategic partnerships that advance the Bank’s growth and social relevance.
• Ensure stakeholder engagement does not compromise governance, credit discipline, compliance or institutional independence.

4.11 ESG, CSR and Sustainable Development

The CEO shall:

• Align CSR and ESG initiatives with the Bank’s purpose, community needs and long-term strategy.
• Support responsible financing for MSMEs, agriculture, women-led enterprises and youth entrepreneurship.
• Ensure CSR initiatives are well governed, budgeted, measured and reported.
• Promote environmental and social risk awareness in lending and operations.
• Strengthen the Bank’s reputation as a responsible community-focused financial institution.
• Ensure social impact initiatives strengthen trust without weakening commercial discipline.

4.12 Board Reporting and Management Discipline

The CEO shall:

• Prepare and present high-quality management reports to the Board and Board Committees.
• Ensure Board reports contain performance data, risks, management actions, exceptions, recommendations and decision points.
• Lead CMC meetings with discipline and follow-through.
• Track implementation of Board decisions and management commitments.
• Escalate material risks, breaches, losses and strategic issues promptly.
• Maintain a strong governance rhythm between the Board, Board Chairperson and Management.
• Ensure Management decisions are properly documented.
• Maintain a clear separation between Board oversight and Management execution.

5. Knowledge, Qualifications and Experience

5.1 Mandatory Qualifications

The CEO must have:

1. A minimum of a postgraduate degree in Banking, Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, Strategy, Risk Management, Law, Public Administration or a related discipline.
2. Strong understanding of Ghana’s banking, community banking and regulated financial services environment.
3. Eligibility to satisfy Bank of Ghana fit-and-proper requirements.
4. Clean ethical, professional, regulatory and integrity record.
5. Demonstrable executive leadership competence in a regulated financial institution.
6. Strong financial literacy, credit risk knowledge and governance maturity.
7. Ability to engage credibly with the Board, regulators, shareholders, staff, customers and community stakeholders.

5.2 Strongly Preferred Qualifications

1. MBA, MSc, MA or equivalent advanced qualification in Banking, Finance, Strategy, Leadership, Risk, Accounting, Economics or rel ated discipline.
2. Membership of a relevant professional body, such as Chartered Institute of Bankers Ghana, ICA Ghana, ACCA, CIMA, CFA, Institute of Directors Ghana, risk management, compliance, audit, governance or leadership body.
3. Executive education in corporate governance, banking strategy, risk management, digital finance, financial inclusion, leadership or institutional transformation.
4. Strong working knowledge of Bank of Ghana regulatory expectations, ARB Apex Bank requirements and corporate governance standards for community banks.

5.3 Added Advantage

1. Experience in community banking leadership.
2. Experience in MSME finance, Agri-finance, branch banking, deposit mobilisation and financial inclusion.
3. Experience leading capital strengthening, transformation, digitalisation or major institutional change.
4. Demonstrated credibility among staff, shareholders, customers, regulators and community leaders.

5.4 Mandatory Experience

The CEO must have:

1. At least 10 years’ relevant experience in banking, financial services, community banking, development finance, microfinance or a closely related regulated financial institution.
2. At least 5 years in senior management or executive leadership.
3. Proven experience managing financial performance, credit risk, operations, people, compliance, customer growth and institutional risk.
4. Demonstrated experience working with or reporting to a Board.
5. Strong understanding of prudential management, internal controls, regulatory reporting and audit discipline.
6. Proven record of leading teams, managing complexity and delivering measurable performance.
7. Experience in strategy execution and performance accountability.

5.5 Strongly Preferred Experience

1. Experience in a rural/community banking, commercial banking, savings and loans or other deposit-taking institution.
2. Experience overseeing multi-branch operations.
3. Experience in credit portfolio management, deposit mobilisation, branch performance and customer growth.
4. Experience engaging regulators, auditors, shareholders, traditional authorities and community stakeholders.
5. Experience managing institutional transition, succession, restructuring, transformation or growth.
6. Demonstrated familiarity with Ghana’s rural economic realities, informal sector dynamics, MSME financing and community banking relationships.

6. Key Performance Indicators

Final annual targets shall be approved by the Board and reflected in the CEO’s performance contract.

KPI Area & Key Measures:

• Financial Performance
• Cost Efficiency
• Capital Strength
• Liquidity
• Deposit Mobilisation
• Credit Growth and Quality
• Regulatory Compliance
• Audit and Controls
• Customer Experience
• Digital Adoption
• People and Culture
• Governance and Board Reporting
• ESG / CSR