You’ll agree with me that this year has been a rather eventful one for everyone in Nigeria. This year, thus far, has been characterized by deceleration on a number of economic indicators coupled with increasing energy costs, intensified by rising inflation, all within a tough operating environment. The banking industry has also not been exempted from these challenges.

The first half of this year alone has recorded a large number of retrenched (fired) workers especially in the banking sector. Hmmm, it would interest you to know that in spite of these challenges, Wema Bank has been able to deliver a modest improvement in the first half of the year.

Reports have it that Wema Bank interest income grew by 15.2% from “N17.5 billion” in 2015 to “N20.2 billion” as at end of June 2016. This growth in revenues was said to be driven by their ongoing initiative to enlarge their footprint in the retail space while keeping customers at the heart of their operations as well as the continued migration of customers to alternative channels and deliberate efforts at reducing cost to serve.

Their Operational Achievements thus far…
• Wema Bank maintained its (BBB-) national scale credit rating from Fitch Rating Agency.
• Launched its USSD digital banking platform which enables customers to perform their banking transactions with the *945# code.
• Strategic branch expansion; opened Lokoja, Aba Road (Port Harcourt) and 3 more branches within Lagos.

Did you know?
Wema Bank was established in 1945, and is Nigeria’s longest surviving indigenous bank. Today, Wema Bank operates a network of over 140 branches and service stations backed by a robust ICT platform across Nigeria.
Oh, I bet you didn’t know. :lol:

(culled from: www.whatsup.com.ng/feature)


NOW, THE BIG QUESTION
Do you think Wema Bank is actually fit, even with this record, to compete with Guaranty Trust bank (GTbank)? And, which bank do you think is the best in terms of customer services?