Heritage Bank Resumes Operations Today

Heritage Bank Ltd

By Obinna Chima

The recently licensed Heritage Bank Limited will open its doors for business from today.

The commercial bank formed from the defunct Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria (SGBN) was granted a regional banking license by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The core investors in former SGBN adopted Heritage Bank as its trading name.

Making the disclosure at the weekend, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Heritage Bank, Mr. Ifie Sekibo, stated that the financial institution would be operating in South-south and South- west regions of the country.

Sekibo, who was the former CEO of International Energy Insurance Plc, added the bank would start operations with three branches, two in Lagos and one in Ibadan, saying that the number would be increased gradually.

“Our shareholding structure is 80 per cent core investor, nine per cent legacy bank, and 11 per cent of depositors’ funds,” he noted.

Also speaking, Chairman, Heritage Bank, Mr. Akinsola Akinfemiwa, said, the financial institution would provide services that would set it apart from other banks.

He also declared that the bank would target small and medium scale enterprises to support their businesses.

“We will nurture them and enlighten them on how to keep records of their transactions and manage their business effectively. We shall also be deploying technology in carrying out our services. We may be having few branches but we shall use technology to reach our customers. We are not there to compete with the so-called big banks but we will provide service that is quite different from what others are doing,” he added.

According to the former Skye Bank boss, the Nigerian economy has greater potentials in the area of power, agriculture oil and gas, amongst others.

He added: “We shall key into the energy sector as most of the government entities have been privatised. We have niche in that sector and we would work with the small and medium industries that would participate in that sector.

“We are going to use technology to drive most of our services. Our mission is to create value for all our stakeholders using superior market knowledge base. We have competent people that are intelligent. Our bank drives on tenacity, innovation, dynamism and excellence.”

Prior to its commencement of business, Heritage Bank had announced the commencement of validation exercise for old account holders of former SGBN. The exercise which commenced on January 29 lasted for four weeks.