Riding on the euphoria waves of the completion of the merger between Heritage Banking Company Limited and Enterprise Bank Limited Mr. Akinsola Akinfemiwa OON, the Chairman of Board of the new Heritage Bank Limited, says the bank is set for a seamless operation that will meet the huge expectations of its customers and stakeholders.
Speaking at a parley with journalists in Lagos recently, Akinfemiwa explained that the bank has, to this end, integrated its “process, technology, people, and branch networks” to pave way for an efficient and smooth banking service for its customers all over the country and beyond.
The Chairman said, “We have aligned our operations and processes. We have also rebranded all our branches and trained all the staff on all aspects of our core operational services. We have equally harmonised our products, customers and data at all our Experience Centres.”
Akinfemiwa further stated that Heritage Bank Limited is a service organization in the business of banking, which will operate in a different and special way to satisfy customers and outflank competition. According to him, Heritage Bank is innovative and service-oriented. Again, he affirmed: “It is not like any other bank. We are going to use technology to push our operations.”
The new development, according to him, has fully established Heritage Bank as a national financial institution that operates and renders full commercial banking services across the country. The bank, which hitherto operated as a regional bank, with 15 Experience Centres, has increased its presence to about 200 service outlets boosted by about 165 branches of the defunct Enterprise Bank, spread across the country.
Akinfemiwa maintained that this monumental event marks a new era in banking in Nigeria as the integration of two entities with such similar values, excellent and professional staffing, strong branch network, has led to an entity that is poised for excellence and quality financial services.
“In this new dispensation, we are now a bigger and better bank that is better positioned to offer unparalleled banking services, which spread across 165 Experience Centres and counting, 33 Automated Banking Centres, 365 ATMs and over 4800 POS terminals across the states. We shall harness the best of the two worlds combined in terms of our innovative products, bespoke technology and extended branch network manned by a team of tenacious people in our journey from a regional bank to a strong tier-2 player in the industry,” he said.
He also assured that Heritage Bank is poised to do that which has never been done in Nigerian banking – create, preserve and transfer wealth across generations. “It is also driven by a set of principles that make it the embodiment of innovation wrapped in modest elegance and knowledge, enabling it to share and lead by example the emergence of a new attitude towards financial services, the people that provide them as well as those that benefit from them,” he said.
According to him, the new Heritage Bank will be led by a “tenacious team, committed to delivering distinctive financial services, building on our legacy of innovation and partnership to create, preserve and transfer wealth across generations.”
Also speaking at the occasion, Ifie Sekibo, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the bank, reiterated the commitment of the bank to building on “the existing quest for quintessential banking service delivery guided by passion and sustained through its brand architecture that exudes quality service, performance, respect, integrity, innovation, tenacity and excellence as core values. In his words he said, “We are sure we are going to get a much bigger organisation that will have the same ethos as Heritage Bank as it stands today, where innovation, transfer of wealth, creation of wealth is our mantra, and that is what is going to happen,” Sekibo added.
The GMD/CEO explained that though the bank will not wish to be boxed into a niche mentality, it will want to be seen to support Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, SMEs. He projected that within the next three to five years, the bank will strive to bring at least, three SMEs to the capital market. “We want to be expert in the areas of nurturing SMEs,” he added.
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