NAIROBI, KENYA: Pan African mortgage lender Shelter Afrique, is shopping for a new substantive boss in the next six months after Femi Adewole left the helm of the mortgage financier after a one-year term.
The lender which held an annual general meeting on Friday failed to name its new boss with insiders saying a serving CEO has been identified and is merely awaiting the completion of his job to switch roles.
As it stands Zambian national Kingsley Muwowo is the acting head over the next couple of months.
“Friday’s meeting simply resolved for us to start rebuilding from scratch, there were no fireworks,” Shelter Afrique said.
The bank has seen the exit of its top executives over allegations of cooking books over the last two years after its former boss James Mugerwa exited while the turnaround team followed suit within a year.
The Ugandan national, was replaced by Director of Business Femi Adewole as the acting Managing Director and Mr Oumar Diop was slotted in as the Acting Deputy Managing Director with Mr Vipya Harawa retaining his positions as Company Secretary/Director of Legal, Risk and Compliance.
Senegalese Siad Diaw, is now the acting Director, Business Development and Project Management while Ugandan national Francesca Kakooza now serves as Company Secretary.
Shelter Afrique, which is owned by 44 African countries together with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Reinsurance is facing the repayment of a Sh825 million final payment of the sh5 billion bond in two months.
The lender has maintained that it is able to settle the bond when it comes due in September but has had to negotiate other short-term loans to manage its balance sheet.
The lender has been in talks with the seven banks including Africa Development Bank, German development lender KFW, European Investment Bank and French development lender AFD to negotiate new favorable arrangements.
It has been seeking legal counsel to help structure the best alternative as it focuses on restructuring the company.
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