By Bayo Bernard, Business Editor
After leading Fidelity Bank Plc as the managing director/ chief executive officer, for six years Nnamdi Okonkwo, the ebullient and consummate banker is retiring from the retail lender in style following his recognition as the Banker of the Decade at the recent Business Day Banks and Other Financial Institutions, BAFI Awards in Lagos.
Okonkwo, will depart the bank by the end of the year, and encomium has started pouring in for the Anambra state born banking czar for changing the fortunes of the tier two bank, once regarded as ‘Igbo’ bank, to a truly national bank that’s now the envy of competitors.
The outgoing CEO had announced, in July, that Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, Executive Director, Commercial, SME, Consumer and Public Sector Business, South west and Lagos, will take over from him effective January 1, 2021.
The last six years, at the helms of one of the top 10 deposit money banks, DMBs in the country, has indeed, been rewarding and herculean for Okonkwo, who has dedicated his success at the bank to God, supportive, trusted staff.
He speaks of staff diversity and professionalism as the hallmark of his success “We brought on board some seasoned professionals. For instance, the Chairman of the Board is a former Chief Executive of a bank and a former Deputy Governor of the CBN for 10 years.
“We also have with us the former Managing Director of Guinness Nigeria and another former MD of a bank. As a deliberate strategy, each time a Director retires, we replace with yet another very experienced one. We also ensure diversity.”
Therefore, analysts in the sector say, the Banker of the Decade award is truly deserving of the man who put the bank on the map of prestigious global lending institutions, within a very short period of time that he ran the affairs as managing director.
Who, then, is better to testify to Okonkwo’s success than those he venerably calls his ‘colleagues’, trusted men and women who have worked with him in those trying years when the graph of Fidelity Bank’s rise to the top, was being plotted in the hot and, sometimes electrifying board room, where ideas were shared among ‘players’ without the bossy attitude, known with some bank’s CEOs, being a constraint?
The same employees, who also ensured that the bank emerged the Commercial Bank of the Year, after beating other banks in the country to the prestigious prize.
While receiving the Banker of the Year award on behalf of Okonkwo, Gbolahan Joshua, the bank’s Executive Director, Operations and technology, said his boss has ended his career in the bank in a blaze of glory.
This award, Gbolahan said “comes as a crowning glory to the contributions of Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo to Fidelity Bank, the banking industry and the entire Nigerian economy. As you may be aware, he is retiring as our CEO, after the completion of contract tenure, by December 31, 2020,” Joshua said.
“He has asked me to dedicate this to all the stakeholders of the bank, including his family and mentors. According to him his modest achievements and contributions would not have been possible without their unalloyed support and help.”
The award is definitely, not a ‘jankara’ one the organizers said. It was awarded to Okonkwo for changing the total outlook of the bank, through deliberate rebranding project which caused an increased in youth appeal; revamping of the bank’s performance management culture to instill a culture of performance; technology refresh and digital transformation in furtherance of the digital retail strategy he implemented.
A gold fish cannot be hidden. Okonkwo’s has indeed, left imprints in Fidelity Bank, a la the financial service sector that will be hard to erase for many years to come.
From a scarcely known bank few year ago when he took over, Okonkwo has transformed the foundametals of the bank in figures, brick and mortar.
Instructively, the bank under Okonkwo’s leadership, has imposed itself as one of the most visible commercial banks in the country, in terms of branch networks spanning 240 business offices and 774 ATMs, as part of effort to deepen financial inclusion in the country, and bring banking to the door steps of many Nigerians.
Under Okonkwo’s watch, the bank has witnessed a growth rate of over 230 percent in profit before tax from N9 billion when he came in to over N30 billion within six years.
Customer deposit has grown from N806.3 billion to N1.35 trillion while savings deposit grew from N83.3 billion to N312.1 billion.
Okonkwo also ensured that net loans and advances rose by over 170 percent from N426.1 billion to N1.16 trillion; customer base increase by 121 percent from 2.4 million to 5.3 million and digital banking penetration improvement from 1.0 percent to 50.1 percent by the end of 2019.
Indeed, the outgoing CEO has traversed Fidelity bank as a colossus. “You have to go the extra mile to accomplish and be distinguished when you set a goal because that will go a long way to determine your success or failure,” Okonkwo said some years ago.
He set the goal for himself at the beginning, to make Fidelity Bank one of the top commercial banks in the country. He has achieved it, leaving the DMB in style, better than he met it.
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