SunTrust Bank to Aggressively Drive SMEs Transactions

December 21, 2020
SunTrust Bank Nigeria logo

By Ahmed Rahma

The Chief Executive of SunTrust Bank, Ms Halima Buba, has assured shareholders of the company that the board and management will make efforts to deliver value to them in the coming financial year.

Ms Buba gave this assurance at the bank’s fourth Annual General Meeting (AGM) held in Lagos recently and chaired by Mr Olarenwaju Shittu, the Chairman, board of directors.

She disclosed at the meeting that the financial institution will achieve this goal by improving the company’s earnings, profitability and asset quality.

In order to do this, she said, SunTrust Bank, “In line with our strategy, [will] aggressively drive SMEs transactions and part of our strategy is retail banking, we want to create a retail bank of choice and certainly SMEs is the engine room for the growth of any economy and to provide financing services to support the SMEs will be the only way, we can support the growth of the economy and particularly in line with the vision of the CBN and the current administration.”

“We are committed to the growth and development of our economy and this can only be done through effective funding of the real sector,” she said further.

The banker also informed shareholders at the gathering that, “As you can see, we increased our loans and advances by 185.41 per cent from N8.4 billion to N23.96 billion and I am assuring you that we will surely do more because we are committed to the growth of the real sector, knowing fully well that, that is the only means to ensure effective growth and development of our nation’s economy.”

Ms Buba assured that as the bank grows, more funds will be set aside for corporate social responsibility as SunTrust is poised to improve the wellbeing of the society.

“The bank increased the headcount to ensure increased business growth higher than the previous year. This amongst others caused an increase in customer deposits compared with the previous year by 38.03 per cent, from N18.64 billion to N25.73 billion and growth in the bank’s total assets from N43.97 billion to N54.79 billion,” she added.

In his address to the shareholders at the AGM, the Chairman of SunTrust Bank noted that despite the challenging environment in 2020, the lender grew its balance sheet as the total assets went up by 24.61 per cent N54.79 billion from N43.97 billion.

He expressed confidence that the next financial year would be better.

Rahma Ahmed

Ahmed Rahma is a journalist with great interest in arts and craft. She is also a foodie who loves new ideas. She loves to travel and would love to visit other African countries someday. She is a sucker for historical movies and afrobeat.

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