First Bank Of Nigeria Plc

First Bank rewards 2412 customers, ends promo

A total of 2,412 customers were rewarded by First Bank of Nigeria Plc following the end of its Golden Promo draws which ran from May 2010 to May 2011.

The final draw which took place in Lagos recently saw customers cart away Kia Picanto Cars, Household Appliances and Power Generating sets.

FirstBank’s Golden Promo was designed to mark the nation’s 50th Anniversary celebration as well as reward the continued customer loyalty and patronage that makes the financial institution the nation’s leading financial services provider.

Expressing delight at winning a Kia Picanto Car, Miss Iyamide Macaulay, a customer of the Bank’s Awolowo Ikoyi branch, commended FirstBank for giving customers a platform to enhance their lives through the promo.

“From the moment I heard of the promo, I was determined to win one of the Kia Picanto cars and this determination was also shared by my son who had been wishing for a car that will be dropping him off at school. We are grateful to FirstBank for transforming our lives,” Macaulay enthused.

Speaking at the event, Mr. Tunde Owolabi, Group Head Retail Lagos Island, said the Bank remained committed to seeking avenues for celebrating and rewarding its customers for identifying with the FirstBank brand.

“We are in business because of our customers and our passion is to always exceed their expectations. The promo has ended, with over 2000 customers rewarded, 35 of them driving away Kia Picanto cars.

We urge our existing and prospective customers to keep banking with us as we continue to transform to serve them better,” he added.

Mrs. Olufunke Smith, Head, Consumer Banking products, also encouraged customers to expect more innovations from the Bank, adding that the financial institution would continue to provide excellent products and services and design more opportunities for rewarding customers.

The 12 customers that emerged winners of Kia Picanto cars in the last draw include John Adama of Geidam branch, Ugwu Uju Eucharia of Suleja branch, Okpologidi Mohammed Sani of Nyanya branch, Ejikeme Ebere Monica of Abakpa Nike branch, Otakagu Nkiruka Chika of Ogbunike branch, and Omoregbe Promise Osaretin of Ugbowo Benin branch.

Others are Sofolabo Oluwaseyi Morenikeji of Murtala Mohammed Airport branch, Kufre Koka of Allen avenue branch,Ojo Oluwaseyifunmi Bermic of Ikeja Industry estate branch, Ugbaju Tara Glory of Lagos Surulere branch, Kalu Eni Emmanuel of Lagos Surulere branch and Momodu Friday of Yaba branch.

Nigerian Bank Nigeria First Bank of Nigeria Plc - Nigeria Music

Source: Guardian, March, 2011

Electronic payment firms have intensified competition for Nigeria’s $4.3 billion electronic payment market with new products aimed at increasing market share.

Within the space of four weeks in February, MasterCard /Interswitch, Standard Chartered Bank , 3Line Card Management and First Bank introduced new electronic payment products in an attempt to make e-payment more attractive to the banked and unbanked.

MasterCard in alliance with Interswitch introduced MasterCard Verve card, a naira debit card, which can be used to make payment or access cash in 30.9 million MasterCard acceptance locations across 210 markets worldwide.

The same week saw Standard Chartered Bank introduce the Naira Visa debit card, which can also be used to pay or access cash in Nigeria and outside the country from over 29 million outlets worldwide, including over one million ATMs on the Visa Network. First Bank on its part unveiled a biometric automated teller machine, aimed at boosting security of electronic payment transactions by its customers.

Similarly, 3Line Card Management, an electronic payment processor for low value transactions, introduced the Freedom Network and Freedom Cards aimed at providing access to financial services to the under-banked and undeserved communities.

The target of these new products is the burgeoning $4.3 billion electronic payment market in Nigeria, which has been enjoying phenomenal growth since 2005.

From 2005 to 2009, Nigeria’s e-payment market grew at an average of 76 per cent in terms of value of transactions from N42 billion to N645 billion. The volume of transactions grew at an average of 1,230 per cent per annum to 114.6 million from 1.89 million.

But with about 130 million Nigerians outside the banking system, and with the economy still heavily cash-based, the prospect that this phenomenal growth will persist is very high.

“The untapped opportunities in the e-payment industry are enormous and we are just scratching the surface.” Chuma Ezirim, Head E-Business Group of First Bank said in reference to the future growth prospect of the market.

Explaining further he said, “In 2005, the average cash disbursement per ATM was N1million per day. Today, some ATMs dispense more than N8m in a day.”

“Out of a population of N150m people, about 70million are bankable but we have less than 20 million bank accounts.

At a five-year target of 200 per cent growth in the number of accounts, we can grow the number of accounts to a minimum of 50 million. We have less than 12 million active accounts in the industry today, with about 7 million active cards issued. If the market is worth about $4.3billion with about 7 million cards in circulation, you could imagine the impact of a 200 per cent growth in the number of active cards.

The Bankers' almanac and year book

The bank directory

First Bank of Nigeria, a century of banking

Thomson bank directory

Nigeria