Fidelity Bank Plc, as part of efforts to promote saving culture among Nigerians, has announced the first set of millionaires from the fifth season of its savings promo, Get Alert in Millions (GAIM 5).

The Executive Director in charge of the Lagos and South West Directorate of the Bank, Dr Kenneth Opara, disclosed this in a statement made available to the phenomenal on Monday in Lagos.

Opara, who highlighted the importance of driving a culture of savings among Nigerians and the need for financial inclusion, said the draw was held in Dec. 17.

“At Fidelity Bank, we are of the opinion that for the standard of living of Nigerians to improve, there is an essential need for every household to embrace a positive savings culture.

“This explains why we continuously incentivise our customers for saving with us.

“We remain firm in our commitment to enriching lives and propagating a healthy saving culture that supports all our customers, and this is in line with the Central Bank’s mandate of deepening financial inclusion.

“We are proud to say that the GAIM promo has so far contributed its quota to making formal banking appealing to people in underserved communities,” he said.

According to the him, the GAIM Season 5 monthly draw saw 10 lucky customers spanning all six geo-political zones of the country.

Opara named the winners as Habib Isiaka, Chikwem Isaac, Labiru Sagiru, Funke Ogunmuyiwa, Caius Onyekachi, Kehinde Adegboye, Lovette Fredrick, Peter Nwaokenye, Miracle Chukwu, and Franca Obichigha all emerged winners of N1 million each in the draw.

“The transparent draw was witnessed by representatives of several regulatory organisations including Senior Legal Officer, Lagos State Lotteries & Gaming Authority, Oyinkan Kusamotu; Head, Lagos Office, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Susie Onwuka; and Arinze Isaac of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC).

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“Since the inception of the GAIM 5 campaign in November 2021, Fidelity Bank has rewarded over 200 customers with N10, 000 each in weekly draws with a total of N125 million in cash prizes to be won by the end of the campaign in July 2022.

“The scheme is open to both existing and new customers who have at least N2,000 in any of their Fidelity Bank savings accounts.

“Every N2,000 in a customer’s account is considered as a ticket under the ticket approach.

“One ticket qualifies a customer to the weekly giveaway, two tickets entitles a customer to the monthly draw, and 10 tickets qualifies a customer to the grand prize,” he said in the statement.

The statement also advised customers to fund their accounts sufficiently in order to increase their chances of winning one of the attractive prizes.

Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, the Managing Director, Fidelity Bank Plc. on Thursday said that 90 per cent of its banking transactions would be on digital platforms in the next two years.

Okonkwo disclosed this at the 42nd Quarterly General Meeting of the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN) hosted by Fidelity Bank in Lagos.

He was represented by Mr Mohammed Balarabe, Deputy Managing Director of the bank, at the event.

Okonkwo said that presently, 80 per cent of the bank’s transactions were on digital platforms.

“In Fidelity today, I think 80 per cent of our transactions happens on the digital platforms.

“And the aspiration is that within the next two years, we should have 90 per cent of all our transactions outside the banking hall on the digital platforms,” he said.

Speaking on the theme, “Internal audit in the new digital Frontier,” Okonkwo said that banks should embrace the digital age through development of digital products and as well be prepared for their challenges.

“In Fidelity today for instance, what they have done is to embrace this digital age and have been working towards ensuring that not only do we use it as an enabler, but it is also a thing that we use to have control of the system,” he said.

Okonkwo said that bank auditors should be prepared for the challenges that would come about due to digital age.

“There is need for us to really be prepared to embrace it, but most importantly, walk through it.

“What you find is that, advancement in technology has enabled the automation of several processes and procedures in the banking industry.

“And what that means is that some services that used to appear very complex and difficult for the public to access have now become so simplified.

“All you need to do now is just touch a button on your computer, laptop or phone and the service is available to you.

“That is a very good development, but it comes with it’s own challenges and I think sessions like this should take time to look at what those challenges are, and how can we overcome them,” he said.

According to him, the banking landscape is changing completely with innovations such as robots and artificial intelligence, and banks must change along with the tide.

He noted that this automation had posed a lot of challenges to the banking industry, which should be addressed by using technology to enhance controls in the sector.

“What you find also is that this automation comes with a lot of challenges.

“Challenges in the sense that it opens up paths to fraudsters and people of bad characters to attack institutions and customers alike,” Okonkwo said.

He said that digital age, no doubt, had increased the potential of business risk of running banks, noting that banks could use technology to enhance the controls in their systems.

“New digitial frontier has increased the potential of business risk of running banks, but we should also look at it from a perspective that we might use technology to enhance the controls that we have in our systems.

“So, technology is expanding the possibilities, as far as I am concerned, of how we go about our control structures.

“What is clear in my mind is that the control function cannot continue in its traditional way.

“Yes the role will continue to be the same, but the way we do it has to change,” Okonkwo said.

Earlier, Mr Yinka Tiamiyu, ACAEBIN Chairman, stressed the need for training of auditors in cyber defence, in line with the evolving technology.

Tiamiyu said that technology keeps evolving, throwing up a lot of emerging issues which auditors must be abreast of.

He said that auditors needed to be relevant in their business in the new digital frontier.

ACAEBIN is a sub-committee of the Bankers’ Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and a not-for-profit organisation established primarily to foster cooperation among Chief Audit Executives (CAEs) of banks, promote competence and ethical standards, among others.

Shareholders of Fidelity Bank on Friday has approved the payment of a total dividend of N3.19 billion declared by the board of directors for the financial year ended Dec. 31, 2018.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the shareholders gave the approval at the bank’s 31st Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lagos.

The dividend translated to 11k per ordinary share of 50k held by investors at the close of business on April 12, 2019.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr Patrick Ajudua, National Chairman, New Dimension Shareholders Association, commended the board and management for maintaining dividend policy.

Ajudua, however, expressed the need for payment of higher dividend by the bank in the years ahead.

He also urged the board to adopt strategies that would enable them to sustain growth and profitability in the industry.

Chief Timothy Adesiyan, President of the Nigerian Shareholders’ Solidarity Association, said that the bank had maintained steady growth in spite of challenging environment.

Adesiyan also commended the bank’s effort in ensuring aggressive loans recovery which impacted positively on its non-performing loan.

“We have a solid bank handled by professionals and our bank is in good hands,” he said.

Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, assured shareholders of consistent and enhanced dividend in future.

Okonkwo said that the bank had paid consistent dividend in the last 12 years, noting that the trend would be maintained.

He noted that investment was for future, stressing that, the current dividend policy was to prepare for rainy days.

“We want the bank to be here tomorrow as going concern and we need capital to continue to be strong,” Okonkwo said.

He stated that that bank would continue to invest heavily in technology in order to enhance activities through digital channels.

He added that the bank would continue to grow savings deposit noting that savings deposits doubled in the last five years.

Commenting on the bank’s performance, he said; “our 2018 audited financial statement shows a strong double-digit growth in earning assets, customer deposits and revenues.”

He expalined that the bank was able to sustain cost discipline with growth in total operating expenses remaining below average headline inflation in 2018.

He said gross earnings increased by 4.8 per cent to close at N188.9 billion primarily driven by 22.7 per cent growth in earning assets which led to 4.2 per cent increase in interest income to N153.7 billion and 9.2 per cent rise in net fee and commission income to N31.8 billion.

He said that digital banking gained attraction during the year with almost 40 per cent of customers now enrolled on mobile/ internet banking products and 81 per cent of total transactions now done on digital platform.

Also speaking, Mr Ernest Ebi, the bank’s Chairman, assured the shareholders that the board and management focus was to build a very strong bank that they would proud of.

Ebi said that the bank would remain committed to corporate governance, risk management and strong capital in line with its five year strategic plan aimed at delivering returns to all stakeholders.

On 11k dividend declared, he told the shareholders that the bank needed to provide buffers for economic headwinds to ensure sustainability.

The chairman said that the bank would some day start payment of interim dividend.

According to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the gross earnings represented a growth of 11.8 per cent when compared with N43.3 billion achieved in the comparative period of 2018.

Its profit surged by 34.0 per cent from N5.0 billion in Q1 2018 to N6.7 billion in 2019.

Similarly, the bank recorded growth in deposits, loans and other performance indices during the period.

Speaking on the financial results, Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, the bank’s Chief Executive Officer, said the double digit growth in earnings and profits further demonstrates a positive start for the new financial year.

“We remain focused on the execution of our medium-term strategic objectives and targets for the 2019 full year, while we look forward to sustaining the momentum and delivering another strong set of audited results for 2019,” Okonkwo stated.

He said that the bank’s earnings grew by 11 per cent on the back of growth in fund and fee-based income.

“We recorded double digit growth across key income lines: Foreign exchange income (34.4 per cent), digital banking income (34.6 per cent), account maintenance charge (25.5 per cent) and interest income on liquid assets (10.1 per cent )”, Okonkwo said.

According to the Fidelity Bank CEO, digitalisation and the bank’s retail strategy continues to positively impact on its fortunes with 43 per cent of customers now enrolled on the mobile/internet banking products.

He noted that more than 81 per cent of total transactions were done on digital platforms, resulting in 25 per cent in fee-based income, coming from digital banking.

“Savings deposits which now accounts for 24 per cent of total deposits in the period increased by 6.2 per cent to N242.1 billion indicating that the bank is on a steady march to achieving the sixth consecutive year of double-digit savings growth,” Okonkwo added.

Fidelity Bank is a full-fledged commercial bank operating in Nigeria, with over 4.2 million customers who are serviced across its 240 business offices and various other digital banking channels.

The bank has in recent times won accolades as the Best SME Friendly Bank, Best in Mobile Banking and the Most Improved Corporate/Investment Bank among several industry awards and recognitions.