The Banker magazine, a publication of Financial Times of London, has named Zenith Bank Plc, the “Bank of the Year Nigeria 2013” at an award ceremony held at the Intercontinental Park Lane Hotel, London.
The award ceremony, which was attended by leading personalities and institutions in business and finance from around the world, celebrates the achievements of the world’s leading financial institutions.
Nominees for the award were judged by their ability to deliver shareholder returns and gain strategic advantage in terms of market visibility and positioning.
The award was also indicative of the level of trust and confidence on the brand and is a testament to the strong management, sound business model and prudent risk approach of Zenith Bank.
According to The Banker magazine, Zenith Bank was selected based on the overall performance of the institution and the opinion of leading financial analysts from the world’s financial markets.
Receiving the award on behalf of the bank, the bank’s Group Managing Director, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, dedicated the award to his bank’s customers while commending management and staff for working excellently to build Zenith into a respectable global brand.
He said: “The bank’s competitive advantage as a financial powerhouse for value creation in Nigeria and the several achievements and successes of the brand are a result of a strategic combination of people talent, proprietary knowledge, strong brand equity, leadership, integrity and relationship management.”
Earlier in the year, Zenith Bank was named Nigeria’s largest financial institution by The Banker Magazine. In its 2013 rating of the world’s Top 1,000 banks, magazine listed the bank as Africa’s 6th largest by Tier 1 capital having grown its Tier I capital to $2.969 billion within 12 months.
Zenith Bank has continually evolved through innovation, dynamism, insight and leadership and has ultimately become a brand respected globally for its tremendous success in the deployment of cutting-edge technology, niche marketing, competitive advantage, provisioning and unwavering commitment to providing best-in-class service to its customers.
An eloquent attestation of Zenith Bank’s best-in-class customer-centric service delivery was made by KPMG in its 2013 Banking Industry Customer Satisfaction Survey (BICSS).
Zenith Bank Nigeria was ranked the best Customer-Focused bank in both the retail and corporate banking categories on the basis of a Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) which took into account key factors like, Convenience, Product/Service Offering, Transaction Methods and Systems, Pricing and Customer Care.
The survey covered more than 14,000 retail customers, 3,000 SMEs and 400 corporate/commercial organisations across Nigeria.
The bank maintains a sound corporate governance culture in line with global best practices. The bank’s core values include service excellence, investment in human capital development, superior asset quality and strong credit culture.
It also prides itself as having good and sustainable earnings, strong capital base, unrivalled professionalism and community development. This reflects in the bank’s consistent impressive growth pattern and performance, which have earned Zenith Bank excellent ratings from local and international agencies.
