The Chairman of Titan Trust Bank, Tunde Lemo, has said the banking industry has been able to revitalise the economy notwithstanding the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 and as well the challenges of COVID-19 witnessed in 2020.
He spoke during the maiden Wema Bank ex staff meeting in Lagos.
Lemo, a former Managing Director of Wema Bank, further explained that the economy did not take a plunge during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that it was as if the banking industry foresaw the coming of the pandemic.
“Every bank today has migrated all its products to the digital platform and so whether COVID-19 pandemic is restricting you or not, banking business through the digital platform remains unaffected, and this was why we were to improve our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter and stood at 3.9,” he said.
According to him, “the GDP will continue to grow even though last quarter GDP performance was as a result of the lower base effect. The GDP will moderate in the first quarter and it will move up later especially this year which is before the election year. During an election year, we tend to see more inflation which will increase the GDP, there will be a lot of economic activities and it will be inflationary, so that is what I see on the horizon.
Managing Director of Wema Bank, Ademola Adebise, stated, “That the reunion will create a very strong community and represent the bank as an outside ambassador, working to advance the bank. Its a welcome development because I believe the reunion will provide members with an opportunity to reconnect with old friends.”
Adebise, who praised the efforts of past Wema Bank dignitaries, stated that in 2021, the bank closed with very positive numbers, and the audit has just been completed. The accounts have just been republished before the end of March, but it is a much improved performance compared to the previous year, when we were hit by the pandemic. We hope that in 2022, our objective, aspiration will be dominant digital banking in Nigeria.
Working towards it, we have launched the first fully digital banking ALAT, which will be a platform that will extend beyond the borders of Nigeria; this is our ambition. ALAT’s performance is superb; its performance has given us vessibility in terms of plan equity; every fainting Nigerian looks up to ALAT, especially when attempting to attract foreign investment.
We believe it is a continuous process, and if there is one constant in life, it is change. Since we launched ALAT in 2022, we have redesigned it twice, so what you see today is a second generation application, and we will continue to provide a human resource to the community, and a lot of coaching is taking place, and people are coming to pick people to coach because we have the DNA that is built in Wema bank and revolves around digital, so we will continue to reinvent our site, and I have a background in technology, so it is something that we are all passionate about.
