Nigeria’s premier financial institution and financial inclusion services provider, First Bank 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 customers by providing exceptional value propositions around each industry sector, 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 helps 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.

The just concluded Kenya presidential election that saw the deputy president, William Ruto surprisingly winning the election was the tensest election Africa has had in recent times.

This is due to the fact that actors in the election are majorly bigwig political leaders in the East African country.

The battle was between DP William Ruto and a well-experienced fifth-time contestant in Kenya presidential election, Hon Raila Odinga but the outcome of this election can best be described as astonishing, especially for the fact that Raila Odinga was hugely and openly supported by the current president, Uhuru Kenyatta.

No doubt, every ‘sensible’ individual in Kenya knows that Odinga was the candidate to beat in the election because he has the resources and the support needed; there was nothing hidden in the fact that the president wanted him at all costs to succeed him against his deputy, William Ruto who has been at loggerheads with him since they secured their second term ambition.

Some of these factors made it impossible for the election to be predictable and as a matter of fact, everyone that had the guts to predict the outcome projected Raila Odinga, considering all he had on his side.

However, when all odds and predictions seem to be against DP William Ruto, one lone voice that gave an assurance of victory for him was that of Nigerian prophet, Primate Elijah Ayodele who has been talking about the presidential election in Kenya since 2020.

Checks have revealed that there was no prophet that revealed that William Ruto was going to win, it was a very difficult prophecy to make but because Primate Ayodele is a true man of God who doesn’t speak except God says a thing, He spoke ahead of time and gave some spiritual directions for William Ruto to secure his victory in the election.

His last statement about the election went viral especially in Kenya after it was published by notable newspapers in the East African country. Primate Ayodele was quoted saying without rigging in the election, William Ruto will be Kenya’s next president.

These were his words; “Without rigging, Williaml Ruto will become Kenya’s next president and will make the country better for the people. Of paramount is that he should employ a new strategy and work more on Mount Kenya, the youth, and women,’

“Ruto must follow up with the election closely because I see plans to rig the election. He must ensure he wins in the first round and, avoid court cases hanging around his victory.

“The DP should follow these instructions and must be very radical on the day of the election because if he isn’t careful, he will be robbed of his win,’’

His prophecy was perceived by many as untrue due to the power at play, some called him names and promised to mock the prophet when it ‘fails’ but unfortunately, God’s name has been glorified with victory of William Ruto in the just concluded election.

Minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi disclosed this when he visited victims of the train attack at the 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital in Kaduna on Wednesday.

“The Nigerian Air Force used to escort the train but for the past one or two weeks, they said the weather has been so bad that they can’t fly”, Amaechi said.

”They say it’s below 500 and if it’s below 500 they will run into an accident, so they have not been flying that is why this attack was successful.

”They said they have resumed flying now and any time we are ready to travel they will have to escort the train”, he said.

Amaechi also disclosed that President Buhari has approved the employment of villagers to keep watch of the tracks in the next six-seven months.

He said the villagers would provide some security watch until some electronic surveillance equipment are installed.

”If they see any thing they suspect they should let us know so that we can let the security know.

”All these are measures we will take until we install the security equipment.”

He said that the Department of State Security Services would be involved in recruiting the villagers to ensure that those recruited were not informants to terrorists.

He said President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the immediate repair of the damaged Abuja-Kaduna rail track.

Work would commence in earnest so as to resume operations, he said