By Uche Amunike
The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has commended NOVA Bank Limited for the expansion plans which they unveiled during the launch of their first branch in Lagos State, as they transitioned from being a merchant bank to being a commercial bank.
Speaking, during the commissioning of the bank’s new office in Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos state, Governor Sanwo-Olu expressed his joy that more businesses were being built in the state, which also meant creating new opportunities and new jobs for unemployed youths. He assured that he would give his total support to the team of Nova Bank for their laudable initiatives.
Hear him: ‘We need to commend them. We need to encourage them. The NOVA team have a choice to go elsewhere or to remain in the merchant banking space. But they decided to take it further, and taking it further means they have to commit additional resources that will enable them to remain competitive and to make more impact.’
‘So on behalf of the Lagos State government, I am here to thank you, encourage you and to say to you that we are excited with this milestone.’
On his part, the Chairman and Founder of the newly commissioned Nova Bank, Phillips Oduoza, during his address, stated that their transitioning to a commercial bank is an avenue for them to make significant impacts in the Nigerian economy. He harped on their expansion plans which included driving financial inclusion, empowering consumers through financial services and boosting employment.
His words: ‘I feel very excited about it because this is something that we have been looking up to, for some time. We have been very successful in the Merchant banking space, which is the space where you attend to wholesale banking clients and corporate commercial banking. Now we have turned around, to take this success story to the retail market, and the retail market has far more population than the wholesale space. So we want to take this excellent service to many more people in Nigeria because we know it is going to make an impact on the economy.’
He further added: ‘We want to be involved in job creation. We want to provide convenient and safe credit facilities.’
The bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Adebowale Oyedeji, while addressing newsmen after the commissioning, also expressed his joy at the swiftness with which Nova Bank has been able to reach a larger part of the society and assured that they would impact the experiences they garnered from the merchant banking life to their new status as a commercial one.
Their customers were not left out in the excitement, as the Group Managing Director of Rainoil Limited, Gabriel Ogbechie, also expressed his elation at the new commercial bank status of Nova Bank, stating that Rainoil Limited has been a long term customer of Nova Bank from inception.He described them as a bank that has thrived on excellence in serving their customers’ needs.
Hear him: ‘Rainoil has done business with them since inception. It is a bank that has rendered excellent service and supported our business very tremendously. So we are not surprised at their own growth trajectory which has culminated in what we are witnessing today.’
