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.

Partners of telecommunication giant, Huawei have commended the company for its impact on the Nigerian oil and gas industry and their businesses on the heels of the just concluded 5th Nigerian International Energy Summit, NIES 2022 in Abuja.

“Huawei has been a wonderful opportunity for my organization based on the nature of their technology, product and solution portfolio that it has which speak directly to my customer needs from different industrial verticals; the online gas, FSI, public sector and also manufacturing,” Executive Director, Emecom Technology and Consulting Limited, Mr Ayodele Afenifero said in a media chat during the energy summit.

Ayodele said the firm’s technology solutions were not just the best for his organization but also for other organisations in the oil and gas sector. Huawei had received an award for Best Technology provider in the Offshore Oil and Gas category during the event.

“You can see that in the area of oil and gas – which is the reason we all came for this event – quite a number of customers have been going to the Huawei stand just to see what Huawei is offering to the industry. People have been looking at the pipeline monitoring solution, the pipeline intrusion solution, and also the E and P storage infrastructure; talking about the storage Edorado, and many other storage applications,” Ayodele remarked

“Also looking at the Huawei cloud where many oil and gas company in Nigeria today are on the journey to be part of what cloud offering is, many of these organizations have been talking about how they would want to have their own storage in their environment, but with the new technology that many organizations is looking into presently today is for every organization that want to scale up to have an hybrid environment, and when you have a hybrid environment which Huawei offers, you have the leverage to get support directly from the OEM and also get to update your firm well at no cost to you. And when you compare Huawei’s solution to the other OEM, Huawei actually speaks to the needs of the organization. And today, everybody that comes to the program knows the importance of Huawei to the oil and gas sector.

Chinyere Okonkwon, the MD/CEO Monac Global Investment Limited, revealed that she has been a partner with Huawei for more than ten years, stressing how her relationship over the years with the company has remained the best.

“We’ve been Huawei partners now for over ten years and we have come a long way, and I can tell you Huawei remains the best in having to get such strong durable technology, solutions and devices to meet the needs of your customers especially in the oil and gas sectors like NNPC, PPMC, and others. Huawei has always been there to support the partners. So there is this strong customer, partner’s relationship. This OEM, partners, customer relationship is like a trinity. It’s a bond that has been solidified by the constant support of Huawei. It’s been amazing being partners of Huawei and we look forward to a more successful relationship,” she noted.

Meanwhile, Huawei IP product Manager, Mr Chinedu Emekekukwu maintained that the company is committed to the continuous support and collaboration with stakeholders in the Nigeria Energy industry. “We will continue to revolutionize the industry with cutting-edge technology innovations that promote safety, Productivity, value and nature,” he said.