Diamond Bank is putting its West African banking operations in Benin, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal on sale in order to concentrate of maximizing the Nigerian retail banking opportunity.
The sale of these assets will help to shore up the bank’s capital base and meet regulatory threshold. Diamond Bank along with Frist Bank, First City Monument Bank, and Ecobank, according to industry sources, have been asked by the Central Bank Of Nigeria to find means of shoring up their capital bases. Incidentally, they are strong deposit mobilisers enjoying a broad spectrum of depositors base.
The bank said in a statement that it’s operations in the four West African countries would be sold to Manzi Finances S.A, a Cote d’Ivoire financial services holding company.
The regulatory approvals for the transactions, it said, had been obtained in all jurisdictions anticipated to close before Dec. 31, 2017.
According to the bank, “By focusing its resources exclusively on Nigeria, Diamond Bank is poised to capitalise on the positive macro fundamentals inherent in the Nigerian market.
“These include Africa’s largest economy and evolving socio-economic trends driven by changing lifestyle preferences in favour of mobile delivered services and a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship”.
The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr Uzoma Dozie, said that time had come for the bank to fully apply its resources to Nigeria after 18 years of building franchise in other markets.
The statement quotes him as saying, “This is aligned with Diamond Bank’s strategic objective: to be the fastest growing and most profitable technology-driven retail banking franchise in Nigeria.
“We are prioritising the Nigerian market because of its vast potential.
“A large segment of the population is underbanked or unbanked and the use of technology and mobile banking is rising exponentially.
“This provides Diamond Bank with the opportunity to reach millions of people, and facilitate financial inclusion on an exceptional scale,” Dozie said.
He said that the bank already had a foundation for growth in Nigeria with over 15 million customers.
“We also have a framework in Nigeria that will allow us to scale rapidly, efficiently and cost effectively.
“In part this is due to our digitally-led approach which has reduced the need to have a network of physical branches to service customers.
“Fundamentally this strategy stands to benefit all our key stakeholders – shareholders, customers and employees – in the immediate, medium and long term,” he added.
The Rainbow with Agency reports
