Sanwo-Olu Seeks More Investments As Nova Bank Begins Commercial Operations

Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has called on companies and individuals in Nigeria to invest more in the country as shareholders of Nova Bank Limited commit to raising the needed capital for the bank as it commenced commercial operations in Lagos.

Nova Bank had obtained a commercial banking licence having raised funds from its shareholders last year, transitioning from a merchant bank. Speaking at the opening of its first commercial branch in Lagos, Sanwo-Olu, commended the shareholders of the bank saying their faith in the Nigerian economy had prompted them to invest in the bank.

He furthered that “where Nova have started today, let other businesses that are on the borderline and are not sure, know that this is where you should be for investment, in your country and in your state and we want to assure you that everything that we need to do as an enabler of the environment we will continue to do.

“We have seen what China has done to the world, we are seeing what India is doing to the world. The next hub is Nigeria and we all owe today and our tomorrow that sense of responsibility that will make this country to compete, not just in Africa but with other countries in the world.”

On his part, the chairman of Nova Bank Limited, Philip Oduoza, revealed that the shareholders of the bank having raised funds through a rights issue last year to transition the bank into a commercial bank, have shown readiness to raise the needed capital to meet the new capital requirement.

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Stating that Nova Bank, with a focus on contributing to the economy is set to disrupt the Nigerian banking space.

“We have been very successful in the merchant banking space, which is the space where you attend to wholesale banking clients, corporate commercial banking clients but this time around we want to take the success to the retail market and the retail market has far more population space.

“So, we want to take this excellent service to many more people in Nigeria, because we know it is going to make a more significant impact on the economy and that’s just basically what you want to do. And for us to do this, our shareholders who believed so much in the bank, were able to raise capital through a rights issue last year to meet the capital requirements of the commercial bank, and they will do it again and they have committed that they are going to do it and they are so determined because it is not about making money. It is about leaving a legacy so we will do it with ease.

“More importantly, we also want to support the president in job creation in stabilising the economy because with a commercial banking franchise we will be able to reach out to so many people that we haven’t been able to reach and the geographical spread is very, very important in job creation.”

Managing director of the bank, Wale Oyedeji, speaking at the commissioning of the branch noted that “we have been around for five years as a the wholesale bank, and I think we’ve done fairly well in that space with the way we’ve managed our relationships with customers at the high end. It’s about time we spread that to the retail SME space, which our previous licence didn’t allow us to do.

“We are coming with that customer centricity model of doing business. We’re leveraging technology in the way we serve the customers in that space. We are going phygital which will allow us digitally connect with people in the new space where we weren’t operating before, and also have physical expressions like this in a few places.we are coming with top grade talent, human capital, we are coming with top grade technology we invested in the highest range of the core banking software in the country today Finacle 11. We also have joining technologies to create the platforms to help us serve those customers in the retail and SME space very well, while remaining entrenched in the wholesale sector of the market where we’ve operated over the last five years.”