Zenith Bank Plc., has appointed Chinedu Zephaniah, as new Group Head, Corporate Communications, NewsClick Nigeria Media can authoritatively report.
NewsClick Nigeria gathered that the appointment takes immediate effect.
Who is Chinedu Zephaniah?
Chinedu Zephaniah a.k.a Zeph is an Economist and bank communication specialist. He is currently a Deputy General Manager and Group Head Corporate Communications in Zenith Bank.
He commenced his career in Ecobank in May 1998 and proceeded to Zenith Bank December 1999 as Assistant Banking Officer.
At Zenith he had a brilliant career rising to Senior Manager, leading teams across several facets of the bank’s business from Commercial, to Retail and later Public Sector. His versatile service in Zenith Bank took him across the South East and Northern regions up till January 30, 2012.
On February 2, 2012 he commenced a regulatory career in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as part of the middle management team to design and implement the financial inclusion strategy (FIS) for Nigeria. In view of the critical communication component of his role in the national assignment, he obtained a Ph.D in Marketing Communication and specialized in bank policy and products communication.
His most reputable achievement in the CBN has been around his role in the design, formulation, and communication, of very critical monetary initiatives like:
Nigeria’s Revised Microfinance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework
National Financial Inclusion Strategy for Nigeria and
The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Fund (MSMEDF) with focus on women and people with disability
As part of his responsibilities in the CBN, he oversaw the N600 billion Commercial Agric Credit Scheme with zero default and was later appointed to serve in the Committee for Nigeria Commodity Exchange Revitalization and the Banker’s Committee sub-Committee on job creation.
He was also part of Nigerian knowledge exchange team with stints in both Central Bank of Kenya and Reserve Bank of South Africa. He trained at the Boulder Microfinance Programme in Turin, Italy and is a member of several professional and academic bodies.
Zeph was an Assistant Director and one of the foremost strategic communication and brand specialists in the CBN before his re-absorption by Zenith Bank Plc on June 1, 2024, as Group Head Corporate Communications.
Dr. Zeph is the author of a popular Marketing Communication textbook in Nigeria and has published several articles in reputable journals around his field of Economics, Development Finance and Bank Communication.
