Ecobank DG says software challenge in Nigeria over by April

The Director General of Ecobank Plc, Mr Thierry Tanoh, on Friday in Abidjan said that interface challenges on software with former Oceanic bank would be over by April. Tanoh said this on Friday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abidjan.

“We are sure that the challenge will be over by April 1, 2013 and it's for real, not a trick, not April fool,'' Tanoh told NAN on the sidelines of a meeting in the Ivorien capital.

Customers of the bank in Nigeria have been complaining over poor services after the buying over of Oceanic Bank.

Many customers have to stick to their traditional branches due to hitches in operations.

The director general said: “We moved the Director of the Information Technology from Ghana to Nigeria to supervise the interface.

“We have been handling the interface in phases and it has been gradual but I can assure customers in Nigeria it will be over by April.''

He said that the bank identified the problem from the onset and had been ameliorating it in phases.

`I admit that we do have a problem in Nigeria and we are working on it.
“All queries on the operations in Nigeria come directly to my office and I can assure Nigerians that we are responding to the situation,'' he said.

Earlier in a presentation, Tanoh said that Nigeria was a priority market for the bank.

“Nigeria is a zone on its own out of the six zones, we have covered all our operations in 33 countries in Africa and other countries.”

He said that the bank had a capital base of 18.5 billion dollars, and expressed the hope that it would reach 20 billion dollars by the end of the year.

Tanoh said that the bank currently employed 18,000 staff and would explore to play a greater role in the current growth rate in Africa.

“We are a pan-African bank and we are targeting to become an international world class bank.

“Our priority is Africa not Europe and we have no intention of migrating to Europe which currently has an inferior growth rate compared to Africa.''

NAN reports that the meeting was held with the West Africa regional stock exchange, Bourse Regional des Valeurs Mobilieres .

The meeting focused on presenting the vision and strategic actions of Ecobank in intervening in the financial market of West Africa. (NAN)