Deposit, merchant, investment and microfinance banks that made excellence and dedication to quality service delivery the core of their operations in 2016 emerged as winners at the BusinessDay Annual Banking Awards 2017, held on Saturday October 14 2017 at the Intercontinental Hotel Victoria Island, Lagos.
Eminent personalities at the prestigious event include the former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, who was the special guest of honour, Jumoke Oduwole, senior special assistant to the Vice President on trade and investment; Emeka Emuwa , group managing director, Union Bank of Nigeria; Funke Opeke, managing director and chief executive officer, MainOne; Patrick LLodianya, managing director, SFS Capital; Abubakar Jimoh, MD/CEOCoronation Merchant Bank; Titi Ogungbesan, chief executive Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers and Bunmi Dayo-Olagunju, chief executve, Stanbic IBTC Asset Managers.
Others were Dele Adeyinka, chief digital officer of Wema Bank and MD of ALAT; Femi Adeoti, MD/CEO Inlaks; Ebenezer Onyeagwu, deputy managing director, Zenith Bank; Gbenga Shobo, deputy managing director, First Bank; Ademola Adebise, deputy managing director, Wema Bank; Caroline Anyanwu, DMD Diamond Bank; as well as the DMDs of Sterling and FCMB.
In his opening speech, Frank Aigbogun, publisher/CEO BusinessDay thanked all the dignitaries for honouring his invitation. ´It is a rare privilege and pleasure to extend to you a very warm welcome to the 2017 BusinessDay Banking Awards and to say how grateful we are that you are able to join us here this evening. I will like to use this opportunity to say thank you and congratulations to all the nominees present here tonight. Your successful efforts in striving for better product and service delivery in various segments of banking is laudable and worthy of commendation,” Aigbogun said.
In his remarks, Olusegun Obasanjo said that the banking landscape in Nigeria changed with the recapitalisation policy introduced during his era just as he encouraged banks not to rest on their oars.
“The richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote admitted that he would not have been able to do much more without the banking reforms done during our reign”, Obasanjo said.
Zenith Bank, in continuation of its excellence tradition, won the Bank of the Year and the most customer friendly award categories. Emeka Emuwa, GMD/CEO Union Bank went home with the Bank CEO of the Year award. Legacy Equity Fund managed by First City Asset Management, won the best managed equity funds category.
Stanbic IBTC’s Money Market and Guaranty Investment Funds both managed by Stanbic IBTC Asset Management Limited won the best managed money market and fixed income funds categories while SFS Capital’s Skye Shelter Fund won the REITs category. Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank was the the mortgage bank of the year; United Capital Plc’s Diaspora bond for Nigeria emerged the deal of the year , while Diamond Bank’s mobile app won the mobile banking app of the year. Diamond Bank also won the best bank in financial inclusion services.
Furthermore, ALAT by Wema was the digital banking product of the year; Fidelity Bank’s *770# emerged the best bank in mobile money services. Coronation Bank was the merchant bank ofthe year; Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers, the stockbrokers/investment bank of the year; Jaiz Bank, the non-interest bank of the year; UBA won the best bank in support of the real sector and LAPO , the microfinance bank of the year.
The best bank in SME banking award category went to First Bank; the most improved in corporate/investment banking award category was won by Fidelity Bank; the most improved in commercial banking went to Access Bank while the most improved in retail banking went to FCMB. The best bank in support of agriculture in 2016 was Sterling Bank.
Special recognition and commendation awards for excellence in banking were given to the MDs/CEOs of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
The BusinessDay Annual Banking Awards presents commercial, merchant, investment and microfinance banks the opportunity to see how they performed in the last one year relative to their peers. In this year’s awards, the Award Committee, which was made up of eminent industry analysts as well as the team from BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit(BRIU), meticulously examined the audited annual reports and investors’ presentations of banks to come up with the nominees and winners.
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