The Group Managing Director of Guaranty Trust Holding Company, GTC Segun Agbaje says the company has set the ball rolling to become Nigeria’s first commercial bank to declare a $1 billion profit.
The Groups ‘s chief executive made the remark on Monday during the Fact Behind the Offer presentation, at the Nigeria Exchange, NGX, IN Lagos.
The financial behemoth recently revealed its plan to raise nine billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo at an offer price of N44.50 per ordinary shares, totaling N400 billion through public offer.
The step, described by analysts, as the right one in the right direction, is also in compliance with the Central bank of Nigeria, CBN, to commercial bank in the country to recapitalise.
The apex bank had in January directed Deposit Money Banks, DMBs, to increase their working capital from the current to at least N500 billion.
Agbaje said GTCO already planned to increase its capital before the CBN announcement, adding that it ha also set the target of being the first money bank in the country to hit $1 billion profitability.
“There is no Nigerian company that has ever made a $1 billion in profit and we are going to be the first to achieve it,” he said, noting that the plan by the Tinubu administration to move the country’s economy to the $1 trillion mark will remain a mirage if the working capital of commercial bank remains at the current level.
He said commercial banks must have the working capital that ”Nigeria will be proud of.”
According to him, “With the Federal Government also saying they wants a $1 trillion economy; you are not going to achieve a $1 trillion economy at this size of banks if you do not raise capital.
“So, we are not only raising capital because the central bank asked us to do it. You might not believe me, but we had decided before that we were going to raise capital and that we were going to pivot this organization for transformational growth.
“We’re going to grow the business in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. We’re going to grow the non-banking businesses. We’re going to improve our technology and when people ask me what my job description is today, I say I’m in the business of creating great customer experiences.
“It is impossible to do that without big technology. When we do food and drink, it is about our customer experience. When we do fashion, it is about our customer experience and when we do banking, it is about our customer experience, and you cannot do that without the right technology platform.
“So irrespective of whether the central bank asked for capital raising or not, we would have raised capital.”
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