Determined to maintain market share, First Bank of Nigeria Limited on Saturday expressed commitment to value creation and effective service delivery to all stakeholders in the years ahead.
Dr Adesola Adeduntan, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, stated this at the sidelines of 125km Relay Walk in commemoration of its 125 years anniversary.
Adeduntan said that the bank would continue to provide standard services and products to its customers and stakeholders for value creation.
“What we intend to deliver to them will go up in terms of quality and in terms of value,” he said.
Adeduntan said that the Relay Walk was very significant and symbolic for all its entities because it showed greatness and synergy.
He explained that the 125km was a representation of the collaborative effort of not just FirstBank but all its entities.
“The 125km is a mark of our incredible journey of delivering impeccable financial services to our customers as we leave no stone unturned to remain an icon of admiration in today’s financial services industry in Africa.
“The Relay Walk is very significant and symbolic. It’s symbolic because it’s a collaborative efforts not just FirstBank but other operating entities within the FBN Holdings family.
“We came together to organise a relay and the significant is when you think of a relay, when you think of 125, if you want to run a relay of 125 on your own as an individual you can get tired but when you collaborate together you can achieve it.” he stated.
Adeduntan said that the walk signified power synergy, noting that the leadership of the institution had moved from individual to individual, generation to generation in the last 125 years.
“What we are doing is to pass on the baton of this relay to the next generation of our staff, depicting the fact that we intend to be in existence for another 125 years,” he said.
Mr Urum Kalu Eke, the Group Managing Director, FBN Holdings Plc, said that the bank had been able to create a network of partners in the past 125 years.
“What we have been able to achieve today by the Relay Walk is to create a network of partners and you saw from the beginning of this relay walk we had our customers, stakeholders, staff joining us at different locations across Nigeria, each doing a minimum of 1.25km and that is not all.
“It’s a great milestone, no other institution in Nigeria has achieved this and we belong to a unique club globally of those that have clocked 125 years and more and we are proud of this day,” Eke said.
he said that passing of baton showed that the bank had come to stay with successive leadership team, team spirit, innovation and self development.
“Over the last 125 years, we have seen successive leadership team, rain and day succefully handover the baton to the next generation of leaders.
“For us, this is just a demonstration that we are here to infinity, we are seeing an exchange of batons anchored on our core values, so you are looking at innovation, you are looking at team spirit which is synergy, you are looking at self development, you are looking at people, passion and partnerships.
“You are looking at those things that can endure and can sustain us so we are passing those batons to the next generation that they will continue to lead this brand and they will continue to lead also so that we will be the first at all times,” he stated.
Also speaking, Mrs Ibukun Awosika, Chairman FirstBank, said that the bank would continue to be the number in the industry with long enduring legacy of value creation.
“If you had the kind of legacy we have had, we are 125 years , you can only look forward to the future, when you remember that the only way you can have the opportunity to celebrate 125 years today is because at different times, different generations from the least to the highest worker have added value and created value,” Awosika said.
Mrs Folake Ani-Mumuney, Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications, said that the bank would remain committed at helping customers build and grow their businesse.
Ani-Mumuney said that the company had been committed to value creation in the last 125 years and would maintain the trend.
“We have been around for 125 years, we want our customers to be around too,” she said.
She noted that the bank would continue to partner regulators to ensure strong robust financial services system in Nigeria.
“We will continue to partner with our regulators to make sure there is strong robust financial services system in Nigeria.
We do a lot of capacity building, heavy on compliance so there is value across board for all stakeholders,” Ani-Mumuney added.
