Glitz as Access, Zenith, UBA, others win laurels at 2016 BusinessDay Banking Awards

Access Bank Plc last Friday emerged the best bank in Nigeria for the year 2016. The announcement was made by the Award Committee at this year’s BusinessDay Annual Banking Awards. As a confirmation of an exceptional performance in 2015, Access Bank’s group managing director and chief executive officer, Herbert Wigwe, was also crowned as the Bank CEO of the Year. It would be recalled that the bank had earlier won Euromoney’s Best Bank Transformation Award in the Euromoney 2016 Awards for Excellence.

Eminent Nigerians at the event included Akinwunmi Ambode, governor of Lagos State, represented by former Lagos deputy governor, Femi Padro. Jim Ovia,  chairman Zenith Bank was represented by Ebenezer Onyeagwu, executive director in the bank, While Bashir Umar, director, asset management Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation  represented,  Umaru Ibrahim, CEO/MD of the organisation. Others include Nike Akande, president Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) as well as  CEOs of deposit money banks, mortgage banks, microfinance banks, leading stock broking firms, Nigeria’s cerebral comedian, Ali Baba and musician Dare Art-Alade, among  others.
Jim Ovia won the Outstanding Achievement in Banking for his contributions to the growth of the nation’s commercial banking sector. Ovia joined the likes of Pascal Dozie, founder and former chairman of Diamond Bank and Subomi Balogun, founder, First City Monument Bank, as eminent Nigerians to have won the rare award.
Other banks unveiled as winners are Zenith Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Diamond Bank, Union Bank, First Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank(GTB), Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank, LAPO Microfinance Bank, FBN Capital Assets Management, Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers, United Capital, and SFS Capital Limited.

In his welcome address, Frank Aigbogun,  publisher/CEO of BusinessDay, emphasised the need for  healthy competition among Nigerian banks and other institutions as this is the only way customers could get value for their money.

“As Nigeria moves closer to becoming an ideal market economy where the private sector is the engine room of growth, it is only through  healthy competition that Nigerians and in particular, the banking public, can get value for their money’’ Aigbogun said.

Referring to the state of the state of the economy, Aigbogun said, “these are tough times but as the saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Despite hardship, there is lights that offers hope, not only for the economy or the banking sector but for all Nigerians at times like this.

“We have a credible process leading to the award. We have had in the last six years, a research and intelligence unit which used to provide content for the newspaper but now also carries out research projects  for commercial purposes.

“BusinessDay will continue to promote transparency, promote info to the investor public and engender healthy rivalry in the banking sector.”

Femi Pedro, erstwhile Lagos deputy governor, representing  Lagos State governor, Ambode, said “Given this challenging environment, it takes expertise to be awarded. The sector remains critical to the growth of the economy. The quest for diversification from the oil sector cannot be realised without access to funds and others.
“I encourage recipients to see the award as motivation to move up the ladder.”

Zenith Bank won the Best Bank in Corporate Banking and the Best Bank in Support of the Manufacturing awards. The United Bank for Africa (UBA) won the Best Bank in support of Agriculture and the Best Nigerian Bank in Sub Saharan Africa awards. First Bank was declared the Best Bank in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the Most Customer Friendly Bank, while Union Bank won the Most Improved Bank in Retail Banking.

Furthermore, GTB clinched the Best Bank in Support of SMEs, Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank won the Mortgage Bank of the Year, LAPO emerged the Microfinance Bank of the Year, Stanbic IBTC Stockbrokers, the Best Stockbroker/Investment Bank of the Year, Diamond Bank as the Best Bank in Mobile Banking, while United Capital won the Most Innovative Investment Bank of the Year. NPF Microfinance Bank and Abbey Mortgage Bank won the CSR Awards for microfinance and mortgage banking sectors.

Business Day’s Annual Banking Awards Programme which has become the banking industry’s benchmark for outstanding performance was introduced five years ago to recognise Nigerian banks and their officials who diligently managed their resources to attain a healthy balance between risks, safety and profitability.

The Award Committee employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative parameters to select the nominees for different categories of awards. The qualitative parameters include the prompt release of audited annual reports within the stipulated time, presence of the analyst’s presentation on banks’ official websites and survey conducted by BusinessDay Research and Intelligence Unit (BRIU).

The quantitative parameters include loans and projects executed under the commercial agricultural credit scheme (CACS), loans and advances to the agricultural sector, manufacturing and SMEs.  Others include PAT growth, capital adequacy ratio, return on average equity(ROAE), return on average assets(ROAA), non-performing loans (NPL), net interest margin (NIM),penalties paid to the CBN, complaints resolution, cost to income ratio, dividend growth and corporate social responsibility(CSR). Others include number of subsidiaries in sub Saharan Africa (SSA), contributions to bottom line from SSA, promotion of non-interest banking services and the number of deals executed across the African continent.

The award categories are the Bank of the Year; Bank CEO of the Year; CSR, Best Bank in Support of Agriculture; Best Bank in support of Manufacturing; Best Bank in Retail Banking; Best Bank in Corporate Banking; the Most Innovative Product; the Most Customer Friendly Bank. Others are Best Bank in Sub Saharan Africa, Islamic Banking, Best Bank in support of SMEs; Best Bank in Mobile Banking; Mortgage and Microfinance banks of the year.