By all accounts, the Sierra Leonean curse of “pull him down” has once again been visited on a very committed banker whose culpability is his success in turning around a failing financial institution, forged meaningful networks between banking and academia and has done much to bridge the gap between what was an elitist financial institution and the communities they serve.

Taking over the reins of Rokel Commercial Bank in 2017, Dr Ekundayo Gilpin hit the ground running by first, changing the corporate image of the entity. He rebranded the bank from a rather stoic, stiff necked organization to a more modern, forward thinking institution. He inherited what was in no doubt a failing institution that had to seek recourse to Government backing for recapitalization. The bank also suffered from a series of bad credit with lending decisions failing to meet proper safeguards and assurances of adequate collateral security. Effectively, the bank’s money was being thrown away.

With sweeping changes on corporate strategy, he was able to move the bank to profitability and in 2021, Rokel Commercial Bank made a net dividend payment to its shareholders including the Government of Sierra Leone.

With success comes jealousy and a burning desire to deflect the young man’s attention from the trajectory of growth he has charted.

Two of his protagonists, Deputy MD, Emmanuel Borbor and Director of Business Development Abdul Rahman Mahdi have been vehemently obstructing progress within the bank, openly challenging the MD and to an extent flouting management directives on the back of refusing to change from the old ways of bad loans and dubious lending. These two have recently been joined by the Head of Legal Services, Margaret Davies, (nee Kamara) whose angle has been to raise issues of sexual harassment against the erudite and hardworking MD, and has had a scathing report authored on her behalf and broadcast on social media. These allegations, we have come to discover are nothing short of a malicious and wicked ploy to defame Gilpin.

What is most disconcerting is that while the MD, Dr Gilpin has been busy pushing to rebrand the bank and make it more relevant to the communities they serve, his detractors are busy trying to pull him down… and these are the same officials who ran the bank to the ground few years back!

A committed banker, Dr Gilpin is well qualified for his assignment, is closely aware of his customers’ needs and has done much to expand banking services to the unmet needs of rural areas. He has also sought to integrate learning into the bank, linking his vast skills with IPAM to form sustainable partnerships between academia and industry.

It is sad that those who are well placed to support such forward thinking initiatives are now using the success of a fellow Sierra Leonean to pull him down.

How would well meaning Sierra Leoneans return home to serve if this is the reward for sacrifice? We wonder!!! More anon…