Zenith Bank’s profile soars higher with an award in Washington D.C as Best Global Bank in Africa
By Tayo Odunlami
For Zenith Bank plc, the award of Best Global Bank in Africa came as no surprise as its sterling performance in recent years has won praise at home and abroad. The recent award was given in recognition of the bank’s influence within Africa’s financial market and its effort to change the perception of doing business in Africa.
At the award ceremony held at The Willard Hotel in Washington DC on the eve of the annual World Bank meetings, organizers of the awards, London-based IC Publications Ltd, publishers of African Banker magazine singled out Zenith Bank for praise for its world class business operations. The award ceremony, featuring 17 different categories, was attended by over 350 people, including Africa’s finance ministers, governors of central banks, financial market regulators, global media personalities, industry leaders and top bankers.
While many were having their first taste of such international awards, for Zenith Bank, it was back on familiar terrain. Only recently, Zenith Bank was named the Best Bank in Nigeria by the prestigious Euromoney magazine at an award ceremony held in London. The bank had earlier in 2007 won two major awards, ‘Bank of the Year’ and ‘Corporate Citizen of the Year’ at the 2008 ThisDay Award for Excellence. This is in addition to the ‘CEO of the Year,’ award won by its Managing Director for his sterling achievement in banking. The bank equally won two awards, the Best Bank in ICT and Best Bank in Export Finance, at the Vanguard Bankers’ Award held in April 2008. The bank was in November 2007 named the ‘African Banker of the Year,’ by the African Investor magazine. The same year, Zenith Bank was named ‘Quoted Company of the Year’ by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).In January 2007, Zenith was adjudged the most customer-focused bank in Nigeria from a survey conducted by foremost consulting firm, KPMG. The survey, which focused on corporate customers of banks, including companies in a variety of sectors, found that customers were most satisfied with the services rendered by Zenith Bank. The bank’s commitment to social responsibility is acknowledged at home and abroad. The bank was adjudged the ‘Most Corporate Socially Responsible Bank in Africa’ by the African Banker magazine.
The impressive growth pattern and performance over the years have earned Zenith Bank excellent ratings from local and international agencies. Standard and Poor’s currently rates the bank BB-, which is the highest ever assigned to Nigerian banks. Also, Fitch Ratings currently rates Zenith Bank AA- (National) while Agusto & Co., Nigeria’s foremost rating agency, has for the ninth consecutive year rated Zenith Bank Triple Aaa saying ‘’…the bank is a financial institution of impeccable financial condition and overwhelming capacity to meet obligations as and when they fall due’’. Recently, Zenith Bank was named ‘Best Bank in Nigeria’ for 2008 by Euromoney. The bank recently announced a profit before tax of N50.28 billion for the twelve months ended 30 June 2008, showing an impressive 96 per cent jump over the N25.67 billion recorded last year.
The result, which showed gross earnings rising by 67 per cent from N94.88 billion to N158.29 billion also had profit after tax, which jumped by 119 per cent from the N18.77 billion recorded last year to N41.04 billion. It was promptly hailed by analysts and investors, who noted that the result was bound to further enhance Zenith Bank’s reputation as a market leader especially with regards to return on investment.
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