The woman who wanted to be a doctor but ended up running South Africa’s oldest bank

Lytania Johnson has held a number of roles during her 25-year career at FNB before being appointed to the bank’s most coveted position earlier this year.

Johnson was named chief executive officer of FNB in April 2026, following her predecessor Harry Kellan’s resignation after a 22-year tenure with the bank and just two years at the helm.

Prior to this, Johnson had served as CEO of FNB’s personal banking division for three years and had experience in multiple other disciplines across the bank.

Finance was not always her first choice. Johnson explained to The Money Show that she initially wanted to pursue a career in medicine.

Growing up in the township of Eldorado Park in the 1980s, both of Johnson’s parents were teachers, which she said placed higher expectations on her academic performance.

Her local church community was a major influence in her upbringing, not just as a place of worship but also as a safe space away from the crime and violence of her area.

It was here that Johnson said she learned much of the values which drive her leadership today, such as humility, integrity, and the importance of putting others first.

During her schooling years, she performed well enough to be considered for a bursary to pursue medicine, but ultimately went on to study finance after school instead.

“I was fortunate enough to have options,” Johnson said. “What ultimately drew me to finance was the combination of analytical thinking and problem solving.”

“It was only at the age of 28, when I joined my first executive committee, that I realised when finance is done responsibly, it has the ability to impact communities, businesses, and economies.”

Johnson said the prospect of creating opportunities and enabling progress for others was something that resonated with her at the time and still does today.

She credited her time studying many early mornings and late evenings at UNISA as instilling in her a sense of discipline, resilience and grit.

A lengthy finance career

After completing her studies, Johnson began her finance career in FNB’s credit card division, starting in cost accounting.

She was placed on a finance team where she was required to write physical checks to pay suppliers and manually reconcile bank accounts.

While Johnson quickly realised that finance was not her passion, she decided to pursue a meaningful career, which led her to experiment with other disciplines.

She worked in various roles in human capital and risk management over the years, eventually securing a position as Chief Risk Officer, where she set the bank’s risk strategy.

From here, Johnson was able to branch out into other business roles at FNB, even serving as CEO of its e-wallet business and as Chief Ethics Officer for the FirstRand Group for a time.

In January 2023, Johnson was appointed as the CEO of FNB’s personal banking division, a position she would hold for over three years before being put in charge of the entire bank.

Now heading the oldest bank in South Africa, Johnson’s appointment comes at a time of increased competitiveness across the country’s banking landscape.

Johnson welcomed this, saying that competition was healthy for FNB, as it forced the bank to continue innovating and improving its services.

She said the real challenge came in rising customer expectations as they desire simpler and more intuitive digital banking solutions, which are accessible and personalised.

However, she said the current technological revolution centred on artificial intelligence was a valuable tool in helping FNB meet these challenges.

“It allows us to see how we can make sure that while we maintain their trust and resilience, we are able to scale and combine our technology with genuine human understanding,” Johnson said.

“It requires us to constantly make sure that while we are a big bank with 187 years of legacy, we are also adopting some of the modern technologies to allow us to be agile.”