KURU UNVEILS GROWTH STRATEGIES FOR ENTERPRISE BANK
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Enterprise Bank Limited, Mallam Ahmed Kuru, said the bank would not engage in the 'game or war of size' but will remain efficient and increase its Information Technology (IT) platforms to transact its business and reduce the number of people coming to the banking hall.
To aid this, he said the bank has invested in modern Information and Communication Technology solutions that would make it convenient for people to carry out banking operations in the comfort of their homes and officers, as well as through their mobile telephones.
Kuru, who addressed reporters in Lagos, said Enterprise bank would still continue to be a medium-size bank.
He said: 'We are still a medium-sized bank. If you look at the unverified figures that I gave you in absolute terms, you will see that if I grew by 20 per cent of N200 billion or N40 billion, and another bank, for example, grew by one per cent of say N5.0 trillion, in terms of size, I am still a medium-sized bank and I want to be a medium-sized bank. Like I said in December 2011, we are not here for any size game or size war. We want to be an efficient bank and that is our strategy,'
Commenting on the three bridged banks – Mainstreet Bank Limited, Keystone Bank Limited and Enterprise Bank Limited, he said they have been restructured and were back to profitability.
He justified the intervention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in these institutions, saying that the three banks were strong enough to compete with their peers in the industry,
He said: 'When we came on board, our mandate was to run the banks profitably with strong financials. I can categorically say that the three banks are strong enough to compete with others.'
Kuru said Enterprise Bank has been able to grow its deposits by over 27 per cent, while the industry average is 15 per cent; loan book by 200 per cent, with average industry rate being 16 per cent; and asset base by 26 per cent; and return on investment (ROI) by 20 per cent, which is over seven per cent above industry average.
On the cash-less initiative, the pilot running in Lagos, Kuru said it was the ultimate, but added that the country needed to enforce the law on dud cheque issuance in such a way that issuers should be sent to jail within three weeks.