RMB plans new products, tutors partners on contemporary investment skills

In pursuit of its ambition to become Nigerians choice investment bank, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) is lining up some innovative products that will distinguish it from its competitors and also strengthen its foothold in a highly competitive, yet specialised market.

The new products, such as Sale and Buy back, provides a client in possession of long term instruments, with some liquidity when dire need of cash.

The bank disclosed this at its inaugural Fixed Income Training Workshop where it tutored its key clients (pension fund managers, insurance companies, asset managers and corporates) on contemporary investment skills that will enable them leverage on the market’s potential.

The training was undertaken by Peter Skerritt and Associates, a company renowned for best practice in Treasury and Risk Management training across Africa.

“RMB Nigeria believes in further deepening the Nigerian Financial Fixed Income markets and adding value to its clients, and this Fixed Income training workshop offers us the opportunity to do so”, Pardon Muzenda, Head of Global Markets Nigeria said at the training in Lagos.

As part of the training, Olubunmi Odufuwa, Head of Compliance, RMB Nigeria,  also engaged clients on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s minimum “Know Your Customer” or “KYC” guidelines.

Odufuwa enthused that “the newly-released corporate governance for banks from CBN, stresses the need for global best practices and elimination of perceived ambiguities for Nigerian Banks.”

“The success of the training workshop (over 50 different institutional attendees from pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers and corporates) is testament to the value add clients believe RMB Nigeria brings to their investment and trading portfolio”– Tosin Osunkoya, Head of Trading, Global Markets added.

RMB Nigeria, a wholly owned subsidiary of the FirstRand Group – one of the largest financial services group in Africa – has been operational in Nigeria since 2013.

FirstRand Group has an estimated $89billion balance sheet size and RMB Nigeria benefits from the financial strength and global reach of its parent. The group is rated internationally BBB- by S&P; Baa2 by Moody’s and BBB by Fitch.

“RMB is a bank built on innovation and entrepreneurship, something we have continued to nurture and grow since inception. We believe that investing in skills training and continuous developments often the best way to reach innovative solutions and arrive at new ideas”, Ayotunde Oyewole, Head of RMB Nigeria’s Human Capital said.

As the investment banking arm of FirstRand Bank Limited, RMB has a deal footprint across 35 African countries and offices in Namibia, Botswana, Nigeria, Angola and Kenya. RMB also operates in the UK, India, China, and the Middle East.