By Modupe Gbadeyanka
No fewer than 350 members of staff of Heritage Bank Plc have been elevated in line with the lender’s commitment geared towards greater efficiency and resource optimization.
A statement issued by the financial institution explained that the promotion was part of its growth and industry innovative agenda designed to strengthen its business across all markets where it operates.
Heritage Bank explained in the statement made available to Business Post on Monday that the promotion was commended by human resources analysts and greeted with joy and enthusiasm by the workforce of the bank was selected after the completion of appraisal system that identified high performers in the bank amongst other criteria.
Chief executive of the bank, Mr Ifie Sekibo, who commended the staff for their efforts, charged them to tenaciously hold to the bank’s core values in their timeless wealth journey and endless quest of delivering excellent services to both internal and external customers of the bank.
“I commend your well-deserved promotion. I also wish to especially thank those colleagues who have not made it on this year’s list.
“I urge you to keep up the good work and contribution, as the organisation recognised your efforts. We promise to continue to reward and recognise your contributions in due time and to use all opportunities to demonstrate this,” Mr Sekibo was quoted as saying in the statement.
Mr Sekibo, however, said the announcement was especially heartening in the face of the rough times occasioned by the downward trend in the economy, hence the move was part of the bank’s strategic plan to keep a vibrant workforce that will enable the bank achieve its vision of being the Nigerian most innovative banking of choice in service delivery, superior returns to its various stakeholders and as well contribute to the growth of the nation’s economy.
With its legacy of innovation, Heritage Bank remains the pioneer bank in Nigeria to use computers for banking services, and had pioneered its flagship Cash Point 24/7 ATM services in Nigeria in 1990.
Heritage Bank was also first to issue a transparent MasterCard debit card in Sub-Saharan Africa and pioneered the mPOS in response to the CBN Cash-less initiative.
Heritage Bank underscored its status as one of the leaders in innovation in the banking sector with the introduction of an advanced intelligent digital experience known as Octopus. This intelligential digital power experience is targeted at improving the over 20 million small business and to meet the demands of an ever-growing active population of Nigeria with simple to use tweaks in making banking experience much more flexible and fun.
Meanwhile, the bank has deliberately focused on the tourism and SME segment in a bid to create a fresh set of vibrant entrepreneurs that will create jobs and distribute wealth in the Nigerian economy because of recent statistics which indicate high unemployment among the youths that make up a large percentage of the population.
One of its initiatives within the MSME sector is its partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), under the N3 billion CBN Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YIEDP), which is targeted at youth, particularly current youth corps members and corps member post five years of service.
The bank has also launched a N500 million Young Entrepreneurs and Students (YES) Grant in Lagos. The initiative, which is in partnership with the Nigerian Youth Professional Forum (NYPF), will, according to the bank, support students and young entrepreneurs toward socio-economic freedom.
Also, in furtherance of its commitment to creating jobs and wealth, Heritage Bank in partnership with the Center for Value Leadership (CVL) developed various impact-driven programmes to empower the youths and women particularly in the under-developed communities in Lagos State and one of these is the Young Entrepreneurship Business Training Programme (YEBTP).
Aduragbemi Omiyale