DIAMOND BANK WINS AWARD FOR BEST OIL AND GAS INVESTMENT COMPANY

Diamond Bank has once again confirmed its position as one of the leading financial institutions in Nigeria by clinching the award of the Best Oil and Gas Investment Company in Africa by World Finance Magazine.

In a press release issued by the Head of Corporate Communications for Diamond, Mrs. Ayona Aguele-Trimnell, she said, “As a bank, we are honoured to receive this award as it further shows our commitment and support for the development and growth of the Oil and Gas Industry over the years. As one of the leading banks in Nigeria, Diamond is committed to working with industry leaders to ensure that the energy sector is developed rapidly by lending full financial support to this all-important sector.”

The prestigious award was presented to the bank at the World Finance Awards in London recently. Every year the World Finance Magazine recognizes industry leaders, individuals, exemplary teams and distinguished organizations, which it believes represent the benchmark of achievement and best practice in a variety of fields.

Diamond Bank, which recently unveiled its new identity and corporate logo, had after a critical overview of the Oil and Gas industry, taken strategic steps to strengthen its presence and relevance in the industry. The Bank’s Oil and Gas group was therefore restructured into four business lines -Oil and Gas Upstream, Oil and Gas Downstream, Maritime & Oil Services and Power; to enable the group put more focus on deepening and growing relationships with the major local and foreign operators in the industry.  

The World Finance magazine is a London based journal that reports on banking, wealth management, investments and strategy. It has since 2007 celebrated the achievements, innovations and brilliance of various companies in its annual awards.

It will be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan recently launched Orient Petroleum’s Anambra River Production Facility in Aguleri Otu. The facility, which is the first ever production facility of oil from an inland basin in Nigeria, has Diamond Bank as the lead financier.

“While we have been recognized as the market leader in the retail sector of the Nigerian Banking industry, this award has served to demonstrate our market leadership in the Oil and Gas sector as well. This is an important milestone in our effort to become the top full-service bank in Nigeria. We are not unaware however of the challenge that this award poses but are convinced that Diamond shall continually perform excellently to honour this”, concludes Mrs. Trimnell.

DIAMOND BANK WELCOMES THE REMOVAL OF ATM WITHDRAWAL FEES BY NIGERIAN BANKS

 Leading customer-centric bank, Diamond Bank PLC has described the decision of other commercial banks in Nigeria to remove the N100 ATM withdrawal fee as a welcome development. The bank further stated that such concessions would further strengthen the Central Bank’s Cashless Policy initiative.

 The Bankers’ Committee at its meeting which held on Tuesday, 13 November 2012 in Abuja agreed that it shall henceforth discontinue the deduction of the N100 fee on inter-bank ATM withdrawals hence saving billions of naira for the Nigerian banking public monthly.

 Commenting on the lifting of the ATM withdrawal fee by other commercial banks Head, Corporate Communications, Diamond Bank PLC, Mrs. Ayona Aguele-Trimnell stated: “We are glad that the Bankers’ Committee has decided to embrace this initiative which Diamond Bank spearheaded five months ago because we always believe that our customers’ interests should be put first.”

It will be recalled that in July 2012, Diamond Bank PLC announced the lifting of ATM withdrawal fees on transactions made at other banks’ ATMs nationwide, thus making it the first bank to offer its customers this unique service. Till date, the bank’s customers have continued to freely use their Diamond debit cards on any other bank’s ATMs hence saving the N100 they would have paid for each transaction.

“At Diamond, we pride ourselves with continually evolving ways of exceeding customer expectation and the decision to suspend the ATM withdrawal charge on transactions carried out on other bank’s ATMs as far back as July this year is a clear demonstration of this. With the adoption of this initiative by the rest of Nigerian banks we are convinced that it would help to usher in a season of better customer service in the industry. This adoption of this initiative also puts reiterates that we must continually innovate in a bid to raise the bar in customer service delivery and we are convinced that Diamond shall continue to take the lead in this respect,” concludes Mrs. Trimnell.

 Diamond Bank, which unveiled a new brand identity last week, boasts of a wide array of innovative products and services that sets the bank apart from industry players. The Diamond SavingsXtra Reward Scheme, for example, has turned out to be the longest running reward scheme in Nigeria with the launch of the fifth season of the scheme on September 2012. The Salary-4-Life segment of the scheme, sees lucky customers of the bank win N100,000 monthly for the next 20 years for maintaining a minimum of N5,000 in their Diamond SavingsXtra accounts. The bank also pioneered online real-time banking in 1992 with the introduction of DIBS, the Diamond Integrated Banking System, which enabled customers to conduct banking transactions online real-time from anywhere in Nigeria.

The bank has remained a leader in technological innovations and customer service since then.

DIAMOND BANK SET TO UNVEIL NEW BRAND IDENTITY

Diamond Bank PLC is set to unveil a new corporate identity reflected in a new vibrant corporate logo.

Through a press release issued by the Head of Corporate Communications, Mrs. Ayona Aguele-Trimnell, the bank announced it had undertaken an overhauling of its brand assets in a bid to position itself as a major player in the Banking industry.

She stated that, “What we have done with our corporate identity is to refresh elements of our brand look and feel to identify with our growing customer base and usher in a period of renewed focus and commitment to our business. Our colours reflect the bright optimistic colours of the Diamond spectrum using green as a base colour with complimentary colours of red, orange and blue. For us, the green symbolizes growth, red stands for vibrancy, orange illustrates ‘passion’ of our people and the blue symbolizes our commitment to innovation in our products and services. These colours also bring us closer to our customers by making us more visible and accessible in the market place as the Bank consolidates its leadership in the retail banking segment.

With the new board of directors led by Dr. Alex Otti since March 2011, the bank announced to its shareholders at its Annual General Meeting in May 2012 that it seeks to be among the top banks in Nigeria in the next few years. The bank’s recent improved financial performance indicates that it is on course to deliver on this mandate.

“As the banking industry becomes more viable and competitive, Diamond Bank leverages over 20 years of stability and experience; coupled with innovation and good corporate governance, to aim for the lead position in the nation’s banking industry,” said Mrs. Aguele - Trimnell.

“Our new visual identity re-affirms our commitment to delivering improved profitability and growth for all stakeholders as well as providing our customers with innovative products and services to meet their banking needs. We are a bank that partners with our customers and support them in the achievement of their goals. Welcome to Diamond-Your Bank”, concludes the press release.

INTRODUCING THE SMART WAY TO SAVE: THE DIAMOND SAVINGS ACCOUNT

With as low as N1,000, anyone can now begin to enjoy the myriad of benefits tied to the new Diamond  Savings Account. With the new Diamond Savings account, customers can have an access to the account even with an account balance of zero naira.

One of the features holders of this account enjoy is access to Diamond Visa credit cards. With the credit card, customers get to make purchases from their cards while they earn interest on the funds in their accounts. Qualifying customers can also access credit facilities from the bank.

Benefits of this unique savings account include ease of access to saved funds at any time, interest earnings on savings and free withdrawals from all ATMs in Nigeria. Diamond Savings account owners also enjoy the privilege of accessing their funds through Diamond Banks alternate banking channels like Diamond Online, Diamond Care and Diamond Care.

To open the Diamond Savings Account , undergraduates only need to provide their school ID card and a copy of their admission letter or current year school receipt for identification purposes; traders can open the account with their Cooperative ID Card such as the ID card from Market Women Association. Staff of reputable companies can also open the accounts with their Identity cards.

The Diamond Savings account comes to join a number of savings accounts currently offered by Diamond Bank. These include the Diamond SavingsXtra account which gives customers a chance to win mouthwatering cash prizes for maintaining the account; Diamond High Interest Deposit Account (HIDA) for customers planning to save large sums of money for a longer term and wish to maximize the interest earned. There is also the Diamond Kiddies account that provides parents with a rewarding way to save on behalf of your children below the age of 18 years.

The Diamond Savings account can be opened at any Diamond Bank branch.

DIAMOND BANK AND ITS PARTNERSHIP WITH SMEs

Small & Growing Businesses (SGBs) have been acknowledged as an engine of growth in many economies such that informal enterprises account for 60% – 70% of total employment in emerging economies. In Nigeria, small & growing businesses account for 70% of industrial employment and well above 50% of GDP. Despite this significant contribution to the economy, access to a formal financial system by small & growing businesses are limited due to imperfect information, perceived high transaction cost of smaller loan amounts and high risk. Small businesses on their part are reluctant to obtain loans due to lack of collateral, untimely delivery of credit and high interest rate.

Diamond Bank has embraced the challenge of serving small & growing businesses by setting up a focused unit within its retail propositions group to drive Micro Small and Medium scale Enterprises (MSME) initiatives. To effectively downscale these initiatives, each Diamond Bank branch has a dedicated relationship manager trained to manage the banks’ MSME service offerings. The banks’ MSME Propositions team recognize that finance is not the only need of small & growing businesses and develops interventions that go beyond the traditional services available in the banking industry.

Efforts to improve management capacity in small businesses include the 24 business seminars that have been held in different cities across Nigerias 6 geopolitical zones. The central theme of these seminars have been to educate promoters of small enterprises on best practices for success and these seminars are delivered by proven entrepreneurs with a track record of organic growth of their businesses. The forum also creates networking opportunities for small businesses and start-ups.

In addition to these seminars, and in recognition of the limited expertise of small business promoters in functional management disciplines, 7 Business clinics have been organised in major commercial cities across Nigeria. These business clinics provided small business owners an opportunity to have consulting/advisory sessions with professionals and consultants on the diverse business challenges they face in running their enterprises.

One of the bank’s CSR initiatives, Building an Entrepreneurs Today (BET)  in partnership with Pan University’s Enterprise Development Centre, is in its second season and has provided management training to 100 entrepreneurs and awarded N30Million in grants to the best 10 businesses.

Networking sessions such as Diamond Business Club, access to internet services (website creation) and the recent selection of 5 customers for an all expenses paid trip to the October 2012 CHINA CANTON FAIR are value added services for small business promoters to improve access to market opportunities and encourage business growth.

Also, linkages and partnerships with organizations such as IFC, SMEDAN, DFID, USAID, and other multilateral organisations are aggressively sought to pool funds for financing, reduce high interest rates, lower business risk, improve business climate, improve business processes and improve management capacity of small business promoters.

The Mediloan project (in partnership with USAID) is one of such partnerships to develop small & growing businesses in the health care sector. The bank also is highly supportive of Market Access Nigeria, an initiative by the Ministry of Trade & Investment to promote market linkages and synergy between small & growing businesses in Nigeria and large corporates & multinationals.

Diamond Bank’s MSME traditional banking product interventions recognises the unique needs of small & growing businesses such as access to finance, cost control, and surplus cash management. In view of this, the bank uses a unique methodology that enables lending to businesses without collateral or security. N69.2 Billion has been disbursed small businesses using this methodology.

Furthermore, the Diamond BusinessXpress Account a current account for small businesses (with variants BASIC, GROWING & ESTABLISHED) recognize that the fee structure of most banks may erode already constrained profits of small businesses and adopts a fixed fee structure relative to the businesses size or monthly turnover limits (N4Mn, N12M & N40M for BASIC, GROWING & ESTABLISHED variants respectively).

Each variant has an appendage account where surplus business cash is reserved to earn attractive returns until required. Customers are eligible to access the bank’s financial and non-financial service offerings through their DiamondXpress account variants.

IFUEKO OMOIGUI OKARU APPOINTED INDEPENDENT DIRECTOR OF DIAMOND BANK

 

Diamond Bank Plc has announced the appointment of Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui Okauru to its Board of Directors as an Independent Director, subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and shareholders in general meeting.   

According to a statement released by the Bank, the appointment was approved by the Board of Directors of Diamond Bank Plc at its meeting of July 26, 2012.  

Mrs. Omoigui Okauru, who is best described as a hands-on strategy/change management consultant and change agent with proven leadership ability, is expected to bring on board her wealth of experience in contributing towards the advancement of Diamond Bank.

She is currently the Managing Partner of Compliance Professionals Plc. – supporting individuals and organizations to ensure compliance with rules and regulations. She is also a part-time member of the United Nations (UN) Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of DAGOMO Foundation Nigeria (Limited by Guarantee), a family based Non-Governmental Organisation geared to community development.

As member of the UN Committee of Experts, Ifueko is the coordinator of the sub-committee on capacity building responsible for identifying and executing capacity building initiatives for deserving revenue authorities and officials. Ifueko also acts as the 2012 Mentorship Chair of the African Women’s Leadership Think Tank (AWLTT).

From May 2004 to April 2012, Ifueko was the first female Executive Chairman of the FIRS and Chairman of the JTB comprising representatives of all taxing tiers of Government in Nigeria. During her tenure, she spearheaded comprehensive tax reforms that lead to the development of a national tax policy (for the first time), modification of tax legislation and remarkable improvement in the effectiveness of Tax Administration. Tax collection in the FIRS, under the leadership of Ifueko Omoigui Okauru grew significantly.

From July 1996 to April 2004, Ifueko founded ReStraL Ltd. (a Leadership and Management Services Company) and built the organisation up from a zero base to a company par excellence. ReStraL Ltd. owns the Franklin Covey (FC) license in Nigeria and other parts of West Africa, and is governed by a Board of Directors committed to the highest standards of service and driving positive individual and organisational change.

From December 1983 to March 1996, Ifueko worked across the broad spectrum of Audit, Tax and Consulting work in the firm of Arthur Andersen & Co. (now split into two firms - KPMG Professional Services and Accenture). She led the firm’s successful strategy consulting practice before her exit in 1996.

A prize winner in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) professional examinations, Ifueko is a Fellow of ICAN and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN).

She attended the University of Lagos where she also earned the competitive Gulf Oil (now Chevron) scholarship for her course of study, Accounting. She graduated with a first class degree and was the valedictorian at her convocation with several prizes won. She attended the prestigious Imperial College London, United Kingdom on a Commonwealth scholarship and holds its Master of Science/Diploma of Imperial College Degree in Management Science.

She has received numerous awards in recognition of services rendered to Nigeria, most recently in May 2012, from the paramount traditional ruler of Edo Kingdom, Omo N’Oba Uku Akpolo Kpolo, Oba Erediauwa, bestowing royal beads on her.

During her tenure, the Federal Inland Revenue Service was recognised through several awards such as the Government Agency of the Year 2009 by the “This Day” and “Leadership” Newspapers.

Ifueko has written several articles and books currently being published. Her works have been used as case study in a number of publications in print and electronic media.

Mrs. Omoigui Okauru’s appointment brings to three the number of female directors sitting on Diamond Bank’s Board.