The New Heritage Bank Will Emerge As A Bold And Leading Tier-Two Bank—Akpobome

By Eric Eghaghe

Heritage Bank’s unwavering commitment to a deliberate and focused growth strategy in the last two years has resulted in laying a strong foundation for the emergence of a bold and leading tier-two banking institution that will be fully unfolded when the ongoing process of integrating Heritage Bank and the acquired Enterprise Bank is completed.

According to the Acting Managing Director of Enterprise Bank who is also an Executive Director of Heritage Bank, Mrs. Mary Akpobome, the integration of both Banks will provide a leverage-able capability and competitiveness that are fundamental recipes for stronger profitability, strategic influence and systemic relevance.

“As an institution committed to leading practices, we have engaged best-in-class strategy towards the realization of value enhancing combination. The integration process has been strategically delineated into four layers – Legal, Leadership, Customer and Staff – with each mapping out clearly defined activities focused on achieving an integrated entity. Essentially, we are set to emerge as a bold and leading tier-two bank in record time, as we are confident of our deliberate and focused strategy for birthing an enduring institution out of the two entities we have currently”, Mrs. Akpobome revealed.

She also assured staff of Enterprise Bank to entertain no fear of discrimination or mass sack as a result of the integration. In her words, “Our top line focus is to ensure that people’s jobs are preserved based on their value creating capability. A key element of our people resourcing and placement program is based on global standard type appraisal to determine how fit they are for the combined entity. In the event that some of the staff are discovered to lack required competencies, we will have in place an appropriate program to deal with such occurrence. This assignment is being carried out by a set of reputable consulting firms as part of the ongoing integration program”.

While describing Heritage Bank as an entity committed to a culture of internal discipline, Akpobome noted that the acquisition of Enterprise Bank was a strategic move aimed at enhancing value delivery to stakeholders.

“The outlook is fantastic. The integration is a growth platform for us. It comes with opportunities for wider market presence and reach as well as better balance sheet in terms of size, strength and quality. Overall, it will boost our total commitment to our stakeholders on both sides”.