After his father, businessman leader Abdul Awal Mintu, stepped down as chairman of National Bank following his appointment as a minister, his son Tabith Awal has returned to the bank as a director.
He joined a meeting of the National Bank board of directors on Sunday. Earlier, on 31 March, Bangladesh Bank issued a no-objection certificate for his directorship.
On the same day, garment sector entrepreneur Nazneen Ahmed also assumed the role of director at the bank. National Bank has published information about the inclusion of these two directors on its website.
Tabith Awal is currently the deputy chief executive officer of Multimode Group and the president of the Bangladesh Football Federation. Meanwhile, Nazneen Ahmed is the Chairman of Dye Affine Limited and Officina BD Limited.
Tabith Awal previously served as a director of National Bank from 2001 to 2003.
After the political change in 2024, Abdul Awal Mintu began to play an influential role once again at National Bank. He was elected as a Member of Parliament from the Feni-3 constituency on a BNP nomination in the February national election.
When the BNP formed the government, he was given the responsibility of Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Due to his position as minister and the obligation to step down from profitable institutions, he resigned as chairman of National Bank. Subsequently, on 2 March, independent director Professor Melita Mehjabin took over as chairman of the bank.
Earlier, in December 2023, Syed Farhat Anwar was made chairman amid internal disputes within the Sikder family. During his tenure, discussions began on merging National Bank with United Commercial Bank, but after the political change, that process did not progress further.
In the meantime, National Bank, plagued by loan irregularities and mismanagement, fell into a liquidity crisis. After the power shift in August 2024, Bangladesh Bank dissolved the bank’s board of directors, which was then under the control of Chattogram-based business group S. Alam.
Later, in August of the same year, after 21 years, Abdul Awal Mintu returned to the bank as chairman. Since the bank’s establishment in 1983, he had served as an entrepreneur director for nearly two decades until 2003, and also served as chairman from 1995 to December 1998.
Tabith Awal had also been involved in the bank’s management through succession and served as a director at various times until 2007.
