Figures Don’t Lie: Wema Bank Standing On Strong Financial Fundamentals—Adebise

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Wema Bank Stands on strong financial fundamentals<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>OpenLife Nigeria reports that Wema Bank&comma; Nigeria’s leading innovative and digital-driven financial institution has<br &sol;>&NewLine;reassured its esteemed customers and shareholders that it remains standing on strong financial fundamentals and reliable performance metrics&comma; riding on the back of seasoned and astute leadership&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The bank gave this reassurance&comma; through its Managing Director&sol;Chief Executive Officer&comma; Ademola Adebise&comma; while reacting to a recent publication in the media purportedly alleging a dip in its liquidity status following the unaudited report for<br &sol;>&NewLine;2020 with the MD&sol;CEO saying the report is only a deliberate campaign to create panic among its stakeholders using false news&comma; and therefore should be discountenanced&comma;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The strength and viability of financial institutions are not measured on the<br &sol;>&NewLine;isolated performance of one outlier year&period; The said report based a lot of its false<br &sol;>&NewLine;allegations on the unaudited 2020 financial year&period; But that was a year when COVID- 19 induced a lockdown and a disruption of such magnitude that negatively impacted businesses&comma; industries and economies the world over&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Wema Bank has continually exhibited not just resilience&comma; but admirable viability<br &sol;>&NewLine;over the years with a 30&period;95&percnt; increase in earnings recorded in just 2019&period; Then came 2020&comma; and in spite of the difficulties&comma; we succeeded in achieving impressive results in<br &sol;>&NewLine;key areas such as net earnings from fees and commissions&comma; while growing the Bank’s asset base significantly&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;That’s not all&comma; customer credibility in the bank was also accentuated with a massive increase in customer deposits over the previous year&period; This is an audacious show of confidence from the customers of Wema Bank<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;These performance metrics amongst others&comma; are testament to our smart balance<br &sol;>&NewLine;sheet optimization approach which will be affirmed by the time the audited and official 2020 Financial Report is released in the coming weeks &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The CEO also referenced how well the Bank’s performance in the said 2020 makes it one of the best performing financial institutions in the land&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We won the BusinessDay award for the Best SME Bank of the Year for 2020&period; A recognition of our unrivalled support for small and medium scale businesses through loans&comma; business advisory&comma; and ease of payments and transactions&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Also&comma; the recently published 2020 KPMG Customer Experience Survey&comma; showed<br &sol;>&NewLine;Wema Bank making significant growth in the retail category&comma; climbing up ten &lpar;10&rpar; places from the previous year to 2nd position&comma; with an above industry average of 74&period;6&percnt; Customer Experience score&period; This achievement is a mark of dedication to<br &sol;>&NewLine;excellent customer service and refreshing support for all our customer categories&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;The KPMG Customer Experience Survey grades banks over six universal pillars of Personalization&comma; Integrity&comma; Expectations&comma; Resolution&comma; Time &amp&semi;amp&semi; Effort and Empathy&comma; and Wema Bank has showed a mastery of these pillars and have been outstanding at all of them&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Furthermore&comma; in line with the bank’s sustainability goal of developing digital solutions for societal impact&comma; it successfully organized the second edition of Hackaholics&comma; a radical gathering of developers&comma; web designers and creative thinkers<br &sol;>&NewLine;to develop solutions around key themes of Education&comma; Health&comma; Agriculture&comma; Fintech&comma; Gaming &amp&semi;amp&semi; Betting&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;These are intentional measures put in place to sustain an institution’s legacy of economic evolution and social inclusion&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are a responsible corporate citizen with empathy as a core pillar of ourpersonality&period; Thus&comma; we stood by the nation in the trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic with significant support for governments at both the federal and state<br &sol;>&NewLine;levels&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Particularly to prevent severe food shortages and align with the SDG of Zero Hunger&comma; we supported State Governments with food palliatives donation which alleviated the conditions of over 80&comma;000 households of the most vulnerable<br &sol;>&NewLine;segments of the population&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With all these financial and non-financial performance metrics&comma; it is not in doubt that Wema Bank is not only standing strong&comma; it is also among the best performing financial institutions in Nigeria&comma; in 2020&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I’ll take this opportunity to commend our customers for their sustained trust in us&period; A support that has remained a critical pillar of our stability and growth over the years&comma; especially as we celebrate our 76th anniversary&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;For us as a responsible and visionary organization&comma; we are staying committed to our corporate purpose of making life easier and better through innovation and digital- driven lifestyle solutions for Nigerians and their businesses&period;” Adebise concluded&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;