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Anything Phillips Oduoza, former Group Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of United Bank of Africa (UBA) Plc touches turn gold as he is the man with the magic fingers.
Presently, he is the chairman of the new lender, NOVA Merchant Bank Limited. The word NOVA in Latin means new. The bank started operation early this year after obtaining license from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN); which makes it the newest merchant bank in Africa’s most populous nation.
Just like a ship with an incredible hull and oars to steady her during a cruise, the enormous experience of the management team of the new lender will spur it growth.
The board of the merchant bank, which Phillips Uduoza is chairman, comprises several prominent individuals including one time ICAN president Emmanuel Ijewere and former Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, Bolanle Onagoruwa.
The lender’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Chinedu Ikwudinma, was a Director outside Nigeria in one of the major financial institutions in the world.
It also has a British board member who was the managing director in a bank that was focused on investment banking and he also comes with a lot of experience.
It will be recalled that when Phillips Oduoza, a first class graduate of Civil Engineering and banker was at the realm of affairs at UBA, the bank expanded across the continent, with operations across 19 countries.
During his stint as group managing director of UBA between August 1, 2010 and July 2016, the Pan African lender’s net profit and total assets moved to N32.0 billion and N3.28 trillion from N668.0 million and N1.61 trillion when he joined the bank.
The future of the banking industry and the economy lies in the hand of lenders like NOVA that has the products and talents to undertake transactions necessary to developing the economy.
Phillips Uduoza said the reason they chose the name NOVA was because they wanted to come in with new ideas, fresh thinking, and cutting edge technology and be able to change the way customers are served.
“Our key focus is wholesale banking and investment banking. So, we want to bring about innovativeness in these areas and we believe that the industry has reached that stage where it needs another quantum leap to take it to the next level,” said Uduoza.
“Banking is changing globally with the emergence of new entrants with non-traditional business models and modus operandi leveraging advances in technology. We believe Nigeria should not be left behind,” said Uduoza.
Experts say the entrant of new lenders could help deepen financial Inclusion as Nigeria is still under banked.
According to a recent survey by Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA), out of 96.4 million adults in Nigeria, 56.3 million (58.4 percent of the adult population) are now financially served.
Oduoza slated they decided to go for new banking license amid a tough and unpredictable macroeconomic recession because NOVA’s products, ideas and knowledge are suited in dealing with the challenges faced by businesses in Nigeria.
“This means that when the economy normalises, we are going to flourish. That is why we are coming out now,” said Oduoza.“As we are a new bank with a clean slate and well positioned to take advantage of emerging opportunities as the economy recovers”
The gross domestic product of Africa’s largest oil producer expanded for three straight quarters last year after a 1.6 percent contraction in 2016, with year-on-year growth reaching 1.9 percent in the final three months of 2017. An increase in crude prices and the introduction of a new foreign-exchange system that ended a crippling shortage of dollars helped attract more investment flows into the country, while improving liquidity for the nation’s lenders.
Indeed the merchant bank is coming on board at a time when Nigerian banks are recording profit amid rising non performing loans brought on by a slump in oil price in mid 2014.
For the year ended December 2017, after tax profits for the 10 lenders that have reported results spiked by 44.28 percent to N693.92 billion from N478.19 billion the previous year (2016), data gathered by BusinessDay shows.
For the full year period ending 2016 the 10 banks saw their profits increase by 21 percent, while there was a 12.32 percent decline in profits in 2015; a period when the sudden drop in crude oil prices from above a $100 per barrel to near $40 forced banks with heavy exposure to the sector to write off loans that began to go bad.
NOVA, a green field merchant bank (the only bank without legacy issues) is poised for the stiff competition in the industry, with a motivated and talented work force and cutting edge technology.
It aims to become a key wholesale and investment banking in Ngeria, wherein lies its area of strength.
“I did mention that as far as investment banking is concerned, we have prepared ourselves adequately to play in that sector and we believe that we have the capabilities, technology and products to be able to compete strongly. We are not going to go into so many things,” said Uduoza.
The management and board of directors of NOVA has put in place a very strong enterprise risk management framework covering market risk, operational risk, credit risk. These excellent risk management strategies will ensure non performing loans are within the regulatory threshold.
“In terms of risk management and credit profile, you will find out that the customers in segment we are playing in have lower risks compared to other segments, because they are well structured,” said Uduoza.
NOVA has various market driven and innovative products that will bolster the top lines (sales) and deliver a high return on investment for shareholders.
For instance on the wholesale banking side, It offers trade services, financing, cash management and foreign exchange services.
On the investment banking side, the lender is looking at mergers and acquisition, advisory services, securities and trading, wealth and asset management.
Bala Augie
