Chairman of FirstBank Plc, Mr. Oba Otudeko recentlyaddressed the board and management of the bank. In the address, Otudeko who was recently elevated to the chairman of the board, pointed the way forward for the bank.

I will use the opportunity of my first address to you as Chairman to thank my predecessor, Alhaji (Dr.) Umaru Abdul Mutallab (CON) for the steady hand with which he led the Board of Directors of FirstBank of Nigeria, as the board undertook the responsibility of leading and controlling the business of the bank this past decade.

It is important also that I acknowledge the magnitude of changes to the industry’s operating environment that occurred on Alhaji Mutallab’s successful watch. Presently, I wish to thank you all for the confidence reposed in me by my election as Chairman of the Board of Directors of our great Bank.

The domestic financial services industry currently confronts one of its most critical moments. In this age of globalisation, no country was conceivably immune to the vagaries and fallout from the financial and economic crisis, which started in late 2007. However, the problems revealed by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) special examination of our local banks, including the erosion of capital in a number of these banks, and the profound lack of effective board accountability, as contained in the CBN’s disclosure have a much larger resonance.

These disclosures have highlighted anew our responsibilities as members of the Board of what is arguably the country’s leading bank, to set the Bank’s strategic aims; provide effective leadership to execute these goals; supervise the management of the business; and report to shareholders on our stewardship.

Defining FirstBank’s vision in a period of rapid change

Within this context, I strongly believe that I ought to begin my tenure as Chairman by setting out in very explicit terms my sense of where the bank should be headed. In view of the bank’s 115-year history, it is important that we proceed by continuing to properly anchor the diverse expectations of our customers, shareholders, regulators, and other stakeholders.

Accordingly, under my stewardship, our strategic goals will be elaborated within the context of the remarkable foundation laid by my predecessors. Thus defined, our paramount goal is to ensure that our institution achieves pre-eminence in each of its businesses, through a deep commitment to service excellence to our customers. I unhesitatingly pledge my support to the various transformation projects embarked upon by the Board and management in pursuit of this objective.

Building scale and scope into FirstBank’s operations

The depth, in terms of scope and scale, that we seek require that the bank becomes the bank of first choice for the majority of Nigerians, and indeed Africans, throughout the world. This requires that we successfully make the transition in processes, people, and systems that allows the younger generation of Nigerians to connect with FirstBank.

This has become inevitable in view of the fact that half of our population is under 18 years of age. In other words, half of our population of around 150 million will be responsible for key buying decisions until mid-century. If we successfully connect with this critical demographic group, we would have positioned the Bank within touching distance of the future of the economy and of the nation.

Anchoring our operations on quality service delivery and innovation

Our ability to achieve this objective will depend on how well we are able to tailor our services to meet the individual needs of our customers. Put differently, the Bank’s key selling point, as we seek to grow market share and seize the windows of opportunity that have opened of late, will revolve round our ability to solve customers’ problems.

I recognise that nothing of value is built overnight; hence, we will relentlessly strive to upgrade service delivery to our customers by continuously improving our processes, and deploying cutting-edge technology on which the new service standards will be based. Because each customer will come to us with a unique problem set, the new service standards will rely on a higher quality of human capital able to distil these needs into innovative financial products/services.

The operative word is mass-customisation; and our goal should be to put in place a system that creates value at the bank-customer interaction stage through the design and deployment of customised products/services, and to ensure cost-price balance for mass-produced products/services.

Putting people at the heart of our operations Achievement of our goals crucially will depend on the quality of our supporting human capital resources. At a different forum, I have stressed the importance of making FirstBank a hub for the boldest and brightest talent that exists anywhere, by equipping and developing our people and ensuring that, as individuals, we are truly first amongst our peers in the industry. My point is that long-term success requires that we create a cadre of staff that is comfortable owning all the Bank’s processes from conception to the end.

Over the next twelve months, we must drive an acculturation process that infuses in our people a passion, and commitment to their day-to-day work. On the back of this, our reward and sanction dynamics must be designed to produce staff that have exceptional self-esteem. Inevitably, we will need to constantly reinvigorate the workforce through the injection of new people and perspectives, especially, as we grow our business. If we must attract the required skill sets from the topmost tier of the pecking order, then we must continue to build an institution that remains the bank of first choice on the continent.

With staff proud to be First Bankers, we may then proceed to build a team of stakeholders who are naturally talented entrepreneurs, creative, highly innovative, and able to effortlessly drive the quality that leads to our desired brand. Need I remind us that our brand should give the fullest expression to our “clear leadership” vision.

Building a first class pan-African financial services institution

I remain committed to the development of Nigeria. As we build scale within the nation through all the initiatives identified above, there is one complementary goal that we cannot afford to lose sight of – our strategy of progressive internationalisation. It is crucial that we continue to strengthen our offshore locations (London, Paris, Johannesburg, and Beijing) with a growing presence on the African continent.

We will do all of this while prudently and conservatively managing our balance sheet and continuing to justify the faith that our over 5 million customers and nearly 1.5 million shareholders have placed in us. We commit to decent returns and growth on shareholders’ investment in the bank. It is fair to say that FirstBank enjoys a natural premium respect and first mention privilege in our market. Consequently, it is incumbent on us to be trailblazers in all that we do, specifically in our governance practices, ethics, service quality and brand-positioning in all our markets.

Focusing on our traditional commitment to a strong ethical base We must do all these against the backdrop of our 115-year long history. Our antecedents, especially our well-known commitment to a strong ethical base has stood us in good stead throughout the years. Now, more than ever in the rich history of our Bank, we must not lose sight of this pedigree. Not just because recent industry developments place an enormous premium on a stronger moral backbone amongst the nation’s bankers, but also because banking is essentially a conservative industry. Therefore, we need to return to the time-tested basics of conservatism and probity.

Returning value to stakeholders

Finally, it is my firm conviction that these initiatives will help us to consistently return sterling performance in dividend and growth of shareholder value. I hope that by the end of my tenure, we will collectively have recreated, through the reinvention of an excellent Nigerian institution, a FirstBank that consistently sets the pace in the design and deployment of new standards for emerging markets financial institutions.

I extend my hand of fellowship to all our stakeholders starting with my colleagues on the Board, management and the entire staff, customers, regulators, and indeed our teeming shareholders, whose cooperation must be willingly obtained, if we are to remain “truly the first.”