‘Acquisition will not affect Enterprise bank operations’

About your result 

As you know, in summary, we posted a profit-before-tax (PBT) of N11.3billion in the year ended 2012 as against a loss of N5.2 billion in the five month period ended 2011; customer deposits rose from 62.6 billion in 2011 to N208.4billion in 2012 just as total assets grew from N198.5 billion as at the end of 2011 to N261.1billion in 2012. The result came as a reassurance that our efforts since we came on board have not been in vain. We feel very happy with the result although there is always room for improvement. It shows what a great team can do. When we were appointed, if you remember, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) gave us a mandate to run the bank commercially and competitively. The 2012 result that you have seen is a direct result of that effort.

Your experience so far, as the CEO

It has been challenging and rewarding at the same time. I count myself lucky because it is a big opportunity to help build a sound financial institution as well as serve the country. When the appointment came, I saw it as a national call in addition to the capping of a long professional banking career. Building a sound bank, particularly, from the structures of the old Spring Bank meant a lot, in that; a successful bank will impact positively on many areas of our economy. It will mean creating wealth for a happy and satisfied clientele through the provision of excellent financial and advisory services; providing employment as well as grooming first rate professionals. The contribution of a well run financial institution to society in terms of corporate social responsibility is also immense. I am equally humbled by the level of support I am receiving from my employers, Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the Board of Directors, which is made up of highly experienced and very successful professionals drawn from the academia, banking and insurance industries. I am very happy to have a dynamic Executive Management team that is dedicated and hardworking. So it is a collective effort, which makes things easy and the staff are charged. I must also acknowledge the continued patient understanding and loyalty of our customers. Altogether, the experience has been wonderful, making the daily challenges exciting. But then one cannot forget God Almighty, who keeps providing us with life and the good health to carry on with the assignment? I count myself really privileged.

AMCON’s mandate was to run the bank as a sound financial institution and make it competitive.

I would say we have laid a good foundation. I make bold to say this because the first thing we did was to initiate a very strong corporate governance structure and we insisted that there must be strong policies in this regard. I am sure you know that the level of regulation in the system has also gone up. This is the reason why as small as we are, we have a 16-member Board of Directors. We have five Executive Directors in addition to the Managing Director and 10 Non-Executive Directors. The least among the non executive directors was a former Executive Director in a bank. So we brought credible people and put them on the Board so that the corporate governance structure will be strong to avoid any abuse of process and that is our strength. What that means is that everybody on the Board is an independent character. They are professional people. Like you know, the Chairman of the Board, Emeka Onwuka, is the former Managing Director of Diamond Bank. He is a professional and disciplined banker. So, by this action the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has ensured that what happened in the past will not happen again. I always say that it is usually the abuse of process that allows banks to engage in unethical practices. In Enterprise bank now, proper and due process is followed in whatever we do. On that note I can assure you that we have achieved our mandate to engender a strong and sound bank. However, we have not reached our destination yet.