FirstBank targets 10m new customers in three years
- To leverage technology for improved service delivery
Nigeria’s premier and arguably biggest bank, FirstBank, is targeting over 10 million new customers in the next three years.
Managing Director and CEO of the bank, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, who disclosed this in Lagos on Tuesday, said FirstBank currently has over 10 million customers, adding its new management was working towards growing this to over 20 million by 2019.
Adedutan unfolded the key strategic focus of the bank to Editors and online publishers at a parley which had other members of the new management, including the Deputy MD, Mr. Gbenga Shobo, in attendance.
He said the bank will also have an immediate focus on migrating a chunk of its customers from the Brick and Mortar (physical) platforms to digital ones, adding that it is working towards moving two million of its customers in the next two years.
Describing the FirstBank as’ the ‘strategically important Bank’ to the Nigerian economy, Adeduntan said the objectives of the new management which assumed office in January 2016, include to retain the spot as the number one bank in thecountry and sub-region; and to continue to be fully embedded in the nation’s economy whilst delivering to all its stakeholders
He said FirstBank, going by its recent financial results, ranks above its peers in terms of earnings generation remains the biggest and the largest bank in Nigeria, with very strong fundamentals, adding that its liquidity ratio and capital adequacy ratio are well above required benchmarks.
Admitting that the Bank has some challenged loans in its portfolios, Adeduntan assured that they a number of them are being remediated, while the management is pro-actively taking steps to recover others.
While assuring that the Bank is in a stable position ,Adeduntan however said the bank’s entire credit management process in being overhauled, and that lending authority of some management levels has been reviewed in deference to a new wave of risk management overhaul and credit discipline regime, as well as deploying a risk management framework as part of the new risk management initiative.
On the Fitch rating released late on Monday which downgraded FirstBank’s rating and that of another Systematically important Bank, UBA from B+ to B, the Managing Director said this is linked to the nation’s economy which has also witnessed a downgrade and affirmed that an Institution can only be as good as the economy with which it operates.
Adeduntan concluded by affirming that despite the challenging environment, ‘our fundamentals remain very strong and we recognize that an institution can hardly have an outlook beyond that of its operating environment. International rating agencies postures attest to this truism and we are nevertheless optimistic that the resilience of our heritage have prepared the Bank for a time like this.
