Lagos — Two years ago, under the present management, Afribank Nigeria Plc embarked on a wholesale transformation programme to retake her pride of place in the financial services industry. The bank initiated and commenced the implementation of a five-year strategic plan crafted to fully maximise its potentials, grow holistically and to offer superior returns to investors.

The main thrust of the growth plan was to make the bank run at a high-level efficiency and with best practices.

Today, the initiative is already yielding positive results that the market has come to recognise and applaud. In the area of its financials, for example, Afribank has consistently grown its gross income and profit before tax. Gross income increased from N15.636 billion in 2006, to N27.537 billion in 2007 and N49.195 billion in 2008. The bank, which recorded profit before tax of N3.983 billion almost doubled it in 2007 at N7.288billion and continued the same feat in 2008 with a profit before tax of N15.116 billion.

The bank also progressively grew its total assets from N138.047billion in 2006, N187.079 billion in 2007 to N352.270billion in 2008. Afribank beat industry standard by posting 38.4 per cent return on its shareholders' funds of N39.52billon in its 2007/2008 financial year. The bank's superior performance was attributable to high level of efficiency, aggressive business development strategies and staff motivation.

Afribank's wholesale transformation programme involves several initiatives that redefined the bank's market sphere for engagement and focuses on the banks' people, processes and its technology infrastructure for service and value delivery to her customers and numerous stakeholders.

Highpoints of the strategic initiatives being vigorously pursued by the bank include:

Capital Raising - Afribank successfully raised additional capital of N105 billion, which increased its total shareholders funds to N145 billion. This strong equity base thus provides the strong platform for the bank to embark on its initiatives under the transformation agenda.

Project TIGER - targeted at up-scaling the bank's information technology infrastructure to meet increasing market imperatives for quality service delivery. The project is happening within the context of a framework for explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge that is being evolved within the bank, to position the staff for effective competitive engagement in the banking industry.

Given the dimension of capital outlay involved to bring these to fruition, the bank has also evolved a Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Management framework that should guarantee uninterrupted operations and service delivery to the bank's customers in the event of an unforeseen emergency. This framework was put to the test recently when the erstwhile Bank of Industry (BoI) building next door to Afribank corporate headquarters on Broad Street, Lagos was demolished through a managed implosion of the building. The bank's operations had to be temporarily run from a remote location, without the customers noticing any hitches in service delivery.

Strategic Risk Mana-gement- To develop a risk management framework that meets Basel 2 requirements, the bank aims at entrenching across board, best practices in managing its risk profile. Working with some of the best advisory providers in this area, the bank is at the moment configuring a risk management and control architecture that should help insulate the bank from the vagaries of risks inherent in its internal and external environments. A retail strategy is hinged on the banks new vision that refocuses on retail business as a key profit engine for the bank's growth. This entails developing a strong capability for delivering retail products through traditional and alternative electronic channels. Aside from retail banking, the bank is also re-aligning its product offering to enable it add value to other relationship groups including the public sector.

A re-definition of Afribank's HR policy, which when fully implemented will result in HR best practices. This include measures aimed at bolstering staff motivation and morale that have now increasingly made Afribank an employer of choice in the industry. A regeneration of the brand to reflect the vista of the new era that Afribank is transiting into. This is an on-going project. It goes without saying that to achieve these goals require professionals with proven competencies and cognate experience in diverse business areas to lead the different teams. As a result, the bank has either appointed or reassigned key individuals in the bank as follows:

Chinedu Onyia - Executive Director; South

Formerly, Executive Director, Consumer & Retail Banking, Chinedu will drive and develop new markets in the Southern axis of the country. He will be responsible for all relationship management groups in this area. A consummate banker adept at corporate, consumer and retail banking business, Chinedu will implement Afribank's speed to market initiatives and foster closer customer bonding. A Chemical Engineer, Chinedu moved over from CitiBank to Afribank in December 2003 as Deputy General Manager. In January 2006, he was elevated to the Board as an Executive Director. In this capacity, he has overseen the implementation of the transformation agenda in the Corporate, Retail and HR functions.

Isa Zailani - Executive Director; Strategy, Risk Management & Control

He leads the Team championing the implementation of the bank's strategy and is also responsible for the overall management of Afribank's Global risk. A professional with over 25 year's industry experience, Isa brings to bear his insight on the strategic visioning of the bank. Prior to his current portfolio, he was Executive Director in charge of Operations and Information Technology services.

Isa is an Accountant with experience Spanning Auditing, Financial Management and Banking Operations. He started his working career with Deloitte in Kano and later joined African Petroleum as one of their Internal Auditors. His banking career started with International Merchant Bank where he spent over 12 years; holding various management positions.

He joined Afribank Nigeria Plc in 2003 as Group Head, Corporate Banking and became Head, Commercial Banking in 2004 and Executive Director Operations and IT in 2006. A product of Bayero University, Kano and Kings College, Lagos, he is a resourceful and versatile person supported by a good network of relationships.

Isa Jibrin - Executive Director; Institutional Banking

Jibrin manages Afribank's relationship with institutional customers. He leads the team implementing the bank's strategic direction on relationship with corporate players in the private and public sectors. He is an economist and a Chartered Stockbroker with about 25 years experience in diverse areas of finance. A thoroughbred banker, Jibrin started his banking career at the then Chase Merchant Bank Plc in 1988 as an analyst.

He joined the then Afribank International Limited (Merchant Bankers) as the pioneer Head of Project finance/leasing Development and was in 1993 appointed pioneer Head of Capital Market Group. He was given the mandate to establish a Stock Broking Subsidiary "AIL Securities Limited" in 1998. He was MD of the company until he was appointed Executive Director, Treasury and Financial Institutions, Afribank Nigeria Plc in 2005. He holds a first class Bachelor Degree in Economics, from Bayero University, Kano, M.Sc Economics from University of Lagos, M. Phil in Petroleum/Energy Economics from University of Ibadan and MBA from University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Henry Arogundade - Executive Director; Oper-ations & IT

Henry takes over as the new helmsman in charge of Operations and Information Technology Directorate of the Bank. He was briefly in charge as ED; Strategy, Risk Management & Control before his current posting; prior to that he was General Manager (Commercial Banking) in Afribank. He brings to his position 27 years of experience in diverse areas of banking including headship of ANP International Finance, Afribank's offshore subsidiary in Dublin, Ireland. He holds M.S.c (1981) from the University of Ife (now Obafem Awolowo University), MBA (1987) and B.Sc (1978) both from University of Ibadan and PMD (2001) from Harvard Business School, Boston, USA.

Mohammed Abbas Jega - Executive Director; North

Abbas ensures that the bank attains the speed to market and proactively offer solutions to businesses and institutions in the Northern part of the country.

Abbas joins Afribank from Unity Bank Plc and brings on board experience in cross-functional roles spanning 24 years in different spheres of the financial services sector.

Olajuwon Olaleye - General Manager - Head; e-Solutions

Olajuwon is responsible for the bank's e-Government & e-Solutions portfolio wherein Afribank is poised to become the leading financial institution in optimising operations and administration of Government agencies through automated processes yielding satisfactory citizen interaction. This same model will be applicable to the private sector which will propel Nigeria to be ranked amongst first world nations in e-Commerce. He is a 1985 alumnus of University of Ife where he was awarded the best graduating student in the B.Sc. Engineering-Physics programme and also holds an Executive MBA degree of IESE, University of Navara, Barcelona. He is also a fellow of the esteemed Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (FCA), a CPA of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA).

Ndubuisi Osakwe - Head; Financial Institutions & Special Projects

Nd, as he is fondly called, will execute the bank's strategic marketing of services to financial institutions in the capital and money market arena - local and foreign, assist in international roll-out and correspondent banking. He has robust experience in treasury, corporate strategy, corporate development, retail banking and products development.

He has over 16 years cognate industry experience. He served on the Boards of First Securities Discount House Limited (FSDH), Express Discounts Limited (EDL) as representative of Spring Bank in both full Board and sub-committees. He was an EXCO member of the Money Market Association and a resource person in financial services, with special skills in Treasury and Financial Institutions as subject matter expert. He joins Afribank from UBA.

Godfrey Ebetaleye - Head; Strategy & Group Coordi-nation

Godfrey is the new Head of Strategy & Group Coordination. He brings to Afribank over 24 years experience in banking, hospitality & tourism, corporate planning in multinational environment and business consulting. Prior to joining Afribank, he worked variously at the Central Bank of Nigeria, United Bank for Africa, Churchgate Group, Port Harcourt International Airport Hotel, Ernst & Young Nigeria, Ijewere Consulting, GlaxoSmithKline West Africa and PriceWaterhouseCoopers from where he joined Afribank.

Godfrey is a Chartered Accountant and a graduate of the University of Lagos.

Bunmi Odubanjo (Mrs) - Head; Retail Banking

Bunmi is charged with the responsibility of growing the retail banking arm of the bank. She has over 18 years experience in banking. Her professional expertise covers a wide spectrum of financial services including retail, corporate funds management, wealth management, assets and liability management. She was Group Head, Retail liabilities and Investment products Group of UBA prior to joining Afribank.Bunmi is a graduate of Sociology from the University of Lagos and has an MBA from the Obafemo Awolowo University, Ile Ife.