Firstbank Wins 2024 Best SME Bank In Nigeria And Best Sme Bank In Africa By Asian Banker Awards
Published by Borderless MediaNg
Nigeria’s premier financial institution and financial inclusion services provider has bagged two awards: Best SME Bank in Africa and Best SME Bank in Nigeria at the highly converted Asian Banker Global Excellence Retail Awards 2024.
The Excellence in Retail Finance Awards Programme, which includes the Global Excellence in Retail Finance Awards and The Annual Digital Bank Awards, is one of the most established awards of its kind, recognising exceptional innovation, leadership, management, and performance in the financial sector.
The 130-year-old institution bagged these two awards because of its full suite of solutions across its franchise to serve the needs of medium and small enterprises in regard to core financial needs and offer flexible financing options across the entire lifecycle needs of customer’s business.
According to The Asian Banker’s Strategic Business Intelligence for the Financial Services Community “FirstBank demonstrated exceptional performance, notably in its SME sector, by achieving more than 100% revenue growth while maintaining a reduced cost-to-income ratio of 16.5%. Small and medium-sized enterprises contributed 26% of overall bank revenue. Furthermore, the institution’s SME customer base grew by 7%, reaching a total of more than one million. For its significant growth in the SME business, the award for Best SME Bank in Nigeria and in Africa goes to FirstBank”.
FirstBank supports its customer by providing exceptional value proposition around each industry sectors, digital innovation of the bank’s processes and financing options, and a strong relationship banking approach to create best in class customer engagement. The Bank’s integrated platform not only help businesses grow and reduce operational costs but also facilitates expansion into regional and overseas markets through its Sub-Saharan Africa subsidiaries
Expressing her delight on the recognition, the Group Head, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Ms. Folake Ani-Mumuney said: “We thank the Asian Banker Awards for the recognition and dedicate these awards to our esteemed SME customers that have progressively impacted the socio-economic growth of not just Nigeria but also the African continent given their critical role as the engine of any economy.
“For 130 years, FirstBank has continued to enable the giants in our customers including our SMEs as well as other stakeholders, and we remain committed to delivering the ultimate ‘gold standard’ of value and excellence.” she concluded.
Amongst other awards, FirstBank recently added to its awards kitty, Best Private Bank in Nigeria and Best Private Bank for Sustainable Investment in Africa by Global Finance, for its exceptional leadership in integrating sustainable practices into its banking operations.
About FirstBank
First Bank of Nigeria Limited “FirstBank”, established in 1894, is the premier bank in West Africa, a leading financial inclusion services provider in Africa, and a digital banking giant.
FirstBank’s international footprints cut across three continents ─ Africa, Europe and Asia, with FirstBank UK Limited in London and Paris; FirstBank in The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone; FBNBank in Senegal; and a FirstBank Representative Office in Beijing, China. All the subsidiary banks are fully registered by their respective Central Banks to provide full banking services.
Besides providing domestic banking services, the subsidiaries also engage in international cross border transactions with FirstBank’s non-Nigerian subsidiaries, and the representative offices in Paris and China facilitate trade flows from Asia and Europe into Nigeria and other African countries.
For 130 years, FirstBank has built an outstanding reputation for solid relationships, good corporate governance, and a strong liquidity position, and has been at the forefront of promoting digital payment in the country with over 13 million cards issued to customers (the first bank to achieve such a milestone in Nigeria). FirstBank has continued to make significant investments in technology, innovation and transformation, and its cashless transaction drive has been steadily accentuated with virtually 23 million active FirstBank customers signed up on digital channels including the USSD Quick Banking service through the nationally renowned *894# Banking code.
