FBN HOLDINGS STRUGGLES TO BE FIRST AGAIN.
Time was when because Chief Samuel Asabia, as the managing director of First bank of Nigeria, he ate pounded yam sitting on the floor with heads of state in Nigeria and still turn down invitations to become the nation's finance minister.
Those were the days when because he was also the CEO of THE First Bank, his word was the law in the Nigerian capital market as he doubled as President of the council of the Nigerian stock exchange. Days that saw a man like Chief Ernest Shonekan say goodbye to the revolving doors of UAC of Nigeria to become head of government without putting on any uniform or belonging to any political party; days when what qualified an Alhaji Waziri to contest for the presidency of Nigeria was the fact that he was once a manager at UAC of Nigeria.
These days. of course, the FBN Holdings, as old First bank has since restructured into as a group, and the UACs struggle to be noticed at the Nigerian stock exchange, not to talk of the larger Nigerian economy with the likes of Dangote, and modern day billionaires pacing business in Nigeria, nay Africa.
Yet, says one year plus old CEO of FBN Holdings PLC, U.K Eke, FBN Holdings, aka first bank, wants to the number one again.
For the record, the days of chief Asabia may have gone, FBN Holdings is still number one in many areas of Nigerian finance: Gross earnings; number of branches nationwide; active ATM machines nationwide and perhaps, in the number on the payroll. But all these pale to almost nothing when it comes to the bottom line; customer service; innovation and healthy loan portfolio. In these areas that remain so critical, of course, FBN Holdings finds it hard to hold on, not to talk of leading the industry, yet.
So, indeed, Mr Eke knew what he was talking about when he spent almost an hour yesterday, June 15 2017 at the event centre of the Nigerian stock exchange telling stock brokers, financial advisers and financial journalists how FBN Holdings plans to be number one again.
First he posited that but for all time high provision for doubtful debts in 2016, FBN Holdings would have shot close to the top, if not the very top of the industry in terms of bottom line and returns. and even cost control. But he was reminded that there lies the real problem: FBN Holdings non- performing loans are too high and life threatening to be ignored.
In response to this, he finally came up with what indeed answered so many questions and convinced many present that FBN Holdings could be back at the front in all counts as soon as 2019, all things being equal.
He explained that the high volume of toxic loans, which he continued to refer to as NPL could actually be traced to five major loans issued in the past. Clean up these five, and non performing loans will no longer be a problem with the group.
One of the accounts should be cleaned and indeed is already back as a performing facility,by the end of this quarter. Another has been reworked and now awaits government nod over the debtors oil well asset to become active and running again. So that too is almost out. And the rest three, are getting the right attention because, he added FBN had to poach an expert from the African Development Bank to head and restructure its risk management overseen by a dedicated board risk committee.
Besides, wisely he refused to say anything about customer service issues but did say with some glee that the group now has a project with Oracle that should make a lot of difference soon enough because it is the biggest for Oracle worldwide and comes in moduls.
He said that right now First bank has some 13m customers and the plan is to double that by 2019
Finally, he told his audience that at the helm of affairs of subsidiaries now are different experts and professionals deliberately poached from other organisations to oversee the flagship banking arm, the merchant bank, the insurance and others with deliberate attempts to improve on corporate governance and synergy.
But then, will it be all talk and no results? May be not because cost saving has since began to have impact and with productive attempts to clean portfolio in a recovering economy, there should be no reason to fail to deliver.
However, little things do matter, At the floor of the exchange, Mr Eke referred to Oscar Onyema as the Director general of the exchange. It was a minor mistake because his title has since been changed to CEO. Then again, later at the event centre, he made the same mistake again. Now pray, is that a sign of team ignorance or lack of effective team spirit? Some subordinate should have been able to whisper into his ears after the mistake at the floor to avoid the one at the event centre if the team spirit was right and there was no team ignorance on this at least.
Now yet another small matter, A whole FBN Holdings came to the facts behind the figures with beautifully designed paper bag containing take away food and a copy of the 2016 annual report for the mass of participants including council of the stockbrokers that had to postpone their meeting to be there, Yet, and here,s where the little thing spoils the show, the sane FBN Holdings came to the event with only very LIMITED copies of its presentation. Good attention to the show and less to substance?
Well, we can only wait and see what the future holds for FBN Holdings, perhaps it is the first missing from its group name that is part of the wahala, who knows? In it buried in abbreviation FBN.
Those were the days when because he was also the CEO of THE First Bank, his word was the law in the Nigerian capital market as he doubled as President of the council of the Nigerian stock exchange. Days that saw a man like Chief Ernest Shonekan say goodbye to the revolving doors of UAC of Nigeria to become head of government without putting on any uniform or belonging to any political party; days when what qualified an Alhaji Waziri to contest for the presidency of Nigeria was the fact that he was once a manager at UAC of Nigeria.
These days. of course, the FBN Holdings, as old First bank has since restructured into as a group, and the UACs struggle to be noticed at the Nigerian stock exchange, not to talk of the larger Nigerian economy with the likes of Dangote, and modern day billionaires pacing business in Nigeria, nay Africa.
Yet, says one year plus old CEO of FBN Holdings PLC, U.K Eke, FBN Holdings, aka first bank, wants to the number one again.
For the record, the days of chief Asabia may have gone, FBN Holdings is still number one in many areas of Nigerian finance: Gross earnings; number of branches nationwide; active ATM machines nationwide and perhaps, in the number on the payroll. But all these pale to almost nothing when it comes to the bottom line; customer service; innovation and healthy loan portfolio. In these areas that remain so critical, of course, FBN Holdings finds it hard to hold on, not to talk of leading the industry, yet.
So, indeed, Mr Eke knew what he was talking about when he spent almost an hour yesterday, June 15 2017 at the event centre of the Nigerian stock exchange telling stock brokers, financial advisers and financial journalists how FBN Holdings plans to be number one again.
First he posited that but for all time high provision for doubtful debts in 2016, FBN Holdings would have shot close to the top, if not the very top of the industry in terms of bottom line and returns. and even cost control. But he was reminded that there lies the real problem: FBN Holdings non- performing loans are too high and life threatening to be ignored.
In response to this, he finally came up with what indeed answered so many questions and convinced many present that FBN Holdings could be back at the front in all counts as soon as 2019, all things being equal.
He explained that the high volume of toxic loans, which he continued to refer to as NPL could actually be traced to five major loans issued in the past. Clean up these five, and non performing loans will no longer be a problem with the group.
One of the accounts should be cleaned and indeed is already back as a performing facility,by the end of this quarter. Another has been reworked and now awaits government nod over the debtors oil well asset to become active and running again. So that too is almost out. And the rest three, are getting the right attention because, he added FBN had to poach an expert from the African Development Bank to head and restructure its risk management overseen by a dedicated board risk committee.
Besides, wisely he refused to say anything about customer service issues but did say with some glee that the group now has a project with Oracle that should make a lot of difference soon enough because it is the biggest for Oracle worldwide and comes in moduls.
He said that right now First bank has some 13m customers and the plan is to double that by 2019
Finally, he told his audience that at the helm of affairs of subsidiaries now are different experts and professionals deliberately poached from other organisations to oversee the flagship banking arm, the merchant bank, the insurance and others with deliberate attempts to improve on corporate governance and synergy.
But then, will it be all talk and no results? May be not because cost saving has since began to have impact and with productive attempts to clean portfolio in a recovering economy, there should be no reason to fail to deliver.
However, little things do matter, At the floor of the exchange, Mr Eke referred to Oscar Onyema as the Director general of the exchange. It was a minor mistake because his title has since been changed to CEO. Then again, later at the event centre, he made the same mistake again. Now pray, is that a sign of team ignorance or lack of effective team spirit? Some subordinate should have been able to whisper into his ears after the mistake at the floor to avoid the one at the event centre if the team spirit was right and there was no team ignorance on this at least.
Now yet another small matter, A whole FBN Holdings came to the facts behind the figures with beautifully designed paper bag containing take away food and a copy of the 2016 annual report for the mass of participants including council of the stockbrokers that had to postpone their meeting to be there, Yet, and here,s where the little thing spoils the show, the sane FBN Holdings came to the event with only very LIMITED copies of its presentation. Good attention to the show and less to substance?
Well, we can only wait and see what the future holds for FBN Holdings, perhaps it is the first missing from its group name that is part of the wahala, who knows? In it buried in abbreviation FBN.
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