You’ve got Firstmonie Wallet on your phone? Did I hear you say Yes… then, count yourself lucky because your first daily recharge and data subscription between 13 – 15 February will give you the opportunity to speak more to your loved ones, or spend more time on your favourite social media channel.
In sharing love this valentine season, Firstmonie Wallet – the electronic wallet initiative by FirstBank – will gift customers bonus 100% data and 50% airtime on their first recharge each day across all GSM networks… make some Noise!!!
Firstmonie Wallet is your friendly e-wallet to pay for your utility bills, buy airtime and data, transfer and receive money from any account in a seamless and convenient way and much more. It is your wallet with many more possibilities.
You don’t have Firstmonie Wallet on your phone? Then count yourself also lucky because you will be gifted the bonus airtime and data once you download the Firstmonie Wallet app, purchase airtime and data; that’s all, data and airtime is all yours. You can also sign up on Firstmonie Wallet via USSD by simply dialing *894*1#.
To sign up for Firstmonie Wallet using your phone,
Simply download the app from your store (iOS or Android)
Enter your mobile number and agree to terms and conditions.
Follow the steps to complete registration.
To sign up for Firstmonie Wallet via the USSD string,
Just dial *894*1#.
Choose 1 to register without BVN and input necessary information.
Choose 2 to register with BVN and follow the prompt.
Use your Firstmonie Wallet between 13 – 15 February and share in our love this valentine.
Ecobank Nigeria (“ENG” or “the Bank”), a wholly owned subsidiary of leading pan-African banking giant, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (‘ETI’), the parent company of the Ecobank Group, announced that it has successfully priced its USD 300 million bond issuance maturing in February 2026, with settlement of the bond to take place on 16 February 2021.
The fixed-rate, US dollar-denominated bond, with a tenor of 5 years, carries a coupon rate of 7.125% and will be listed on the London Stock Exchange. It is accompanied by an Issuer Rating of B- from Fitch Rating Agency and S & P. The coupon / yield represents the lowest ever coupon / yield achieved by a Nigerian financial institution for a benchmark bond transaction. At the peak of marketing the transaction, the issue was over 3 times oversubscribed, with significant interest from international investors. The transaction opened with Initial Price Thoughts (‘IPT’s’) of 7.75% and finally tightened to close at 7.125% on the back of robust demand. The strength and depth of the book demonstrated global investors’ strong appetite for the Ecobank franchise in Nigeria, a testament to the strength of the Ecobank Group. This transaction is the first non-sovereign bond from Africa in 2021 and is milestone capital raise for the banking sector in Nigeria, giving Ecobank access to global debt capital markets, and more favorable credit terms, commensurate with its strong financial position and robust capital structure. For international investors, it represented an attractive option to gain exposure to Nigeria.
This transaction followed a series of virtual global investor calls, with a number of blue-chip local, regional and international financial institutions, led by Citi, Mashreq, Renaissance Capital and Standard Chartered Bank as Joint Lead Managers and Bookrunners.
Commenting on the issuance, Mr. Patrick Akinwuntan, Managing Director of Ecobank Nigeria, said: “Despite the challenging global environment owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and on the back of a successful NGN 50bn Tier 2 issuance in December 2020, ENG was able to successfully issue and price Nigeria’s first 2021 senior unsecured 5 year bond transaction. Ecobank Nigeria, through this issuance, is being proactive in optimizing its capital structure as it continues to drive its medium term growth strategy of establishing itself as a leading facilitator of pan-Africa and international trade and payments.”
Mr. Akinwuntan continued, “I would like to extend my appreciation to our regulators, the Central Bank of Nigeria, for their timely support and continuous guidance, in granting necessary regulatory approvals.”
He further added: “We believe that our capital raising activities are key steps forward towards strengthening ENG beyond the regulatory ratios in addition to diversifying ENG’s medium-term financing sources. ENG is poised for continued growth in the Nigerian financial services industry.”
Quality and availability just berthed to the advantage of people with taste for quality living in Ikeja and its environ following the opening of a new home appliances store where various Scanfrost and Sony products are readily available, shoppers are sure guarantied of good times.
The new stores which is powered Mauve Motions Ventures is at Shop L-5, Ikeja City Mall, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos. Tel- 2349027057557.
In furtherance of the need to promote the business activities of its foremost agent banking platform – Firstmonie Agents – Nigeria’s leading financial inclusion services provider, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, has announced the provision of loan facilities – up to one million naira – to its banking agents. The Bank currently has over 86,300 Firstmonie Agents, spread across the country’s 772 Local Government Areas.
With its location in every neighbourhood, Firstmonie Agents have been integral to filling the financial exclusion gap, providing convenient banking services that are easily accessible, thereby saving time and travel costs for individuals in the suburbs and remote environments that have no access to financial services.
The Bank’s financial inclusion activities is in line with the mandate of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ensure the availability of affordable financial products and services to all individuals and groups of people in the country; irrespective of location, literacy levels, familiarity with technology and accessibility to modern infrastructural facilities. The Firstmonie Agent channel is amongst the Bank’s many initiatives to expand financial access in the country.
Appreciating the Firstmonie Agents, Mr. Chuma Ezirim, Group Executive, e-Business & Retail Products, First Bank of Nigeria Limited said “the roles played by our Firstmonie Agents in promoting businesses across the nooks and crannies of the country cannot be overemphasized as they have continued to set the pace in extending financial inclusion to communities with little or no access to financial services.
“With our Firstmonie Agents in every neighbourhood, several communities have witnessed a surge in business and financial activities, which is contributory to national growth and development. We commend our Agents and are delighted to support them with credit facilities, which they can access 24hours a day in less than 2minutes.”
FBN Holdings PLC (“FBNHoldings), Nigeria’s leading financial holdings company, has announced the appointments of Mr. Seni Adetu and Mrs. Juliet Anammah as Independent Non-Executive directors, while Mr. Otu Hughes has been appointed as a Non-Executive director. These appointments are subject to the approval of the Central Bank of Nigeria (“CBN”).
Speaking on the appointments, the Group Chairman of FBN Holdings Plc, Dr. Oba Otudeko, CFR, said, “On behalf of the board, management and staff of FBNHoldings, I am delighted to welcome the trio of Seni Adetu, Mrs. Juliet Anammah and Otu Hughes to the FBNHoldings board as they bring on board their combined professional experience and expertise of over 97 years, cutting across various industries and institutions of global repute.”
“I am certain that these rich experiences will have immediate and long-term impact on the group and its subsidiaries across Africa and beyond,” he added further.
SENI ADETU
Seni Adetu, a former Managing Director/CEO Guinness Nigeria Plc, has 35 years of private sector experience garnered at the highest levels primarily with John Holt Plc, Coca-Cola International and Diageo (Guinness) Plc in various countries within and outside Africa. He holds a first degree in Chemical Engineering and Masters in Business Administration (with specialization in Marketing), both from the University of Lagos. Adetu was at various times Marketing Director, Coca-Cola Nigeria Ltd, Managing Director of Coca-Cola, and the first African Managing Director/CEO and Executive Vice Chairman of Guinness Ghana Plc.
In 2009, Adetu was appointed Group Managing Director/CEO East African Breweries (EABL), the biggest company in East Africa, based in Kenya, during which time he was named Runner-up Forbes/CNBC CEO of the Year 2012 in East Africa. He was subsequently appointed MD/CEO of Guinness Nigeria Plc and Executive Chairman Diageo Brands Nigeria thus, again becoming the first Nigerian in nearly 20 years to lead that company. Adetu has had working stints in Hungary and the UK and has been exposed to various high-profile leadership courses globally including at the prestigious Harvard Business School.
He has served on the boards of various multinational companies in both Executive and Non-Executive capacity in Nigeria and abroad and was until recently an Independent Non-Executive Director on the Board of Fidelity Bank Plc and Non-Executive Director at APT Pensions Ltd among others.
Adetu is the Founder/Group CEO of Algorithm Media Limited and Ogilvy Nigeria Limited, two leading Marketing Communications agencies in Nigeria, in partnership with WPP, the world’s largest advertising and media agency network. He is a member of many reputable social clubs including the Metropolitan Club Lagos. He is also the immediate past National Vice President of the University of Lagos Alumni Association.
JULIET ANAMMAH
Juliet Anammah is Chairwoman Jumia Nigeria & Head of Institutional Affairs Jumia Group. Jumia is the largest eCommerce platform in Africa and the first African Tech start-up to be listed on the NYSE
She is an experienced executive with 28+ years of professional experience including 7 + years at Partner / Chief Executive level.
Before her current role, she was the CEO of Jumia Nigeria. Prior to joining Jumia, Juliet spent 16 years at Accenture and was the Partner managing Accenture’s Consumer Goods Practice in West Africa.
A Pharmacist by training, she started her career in Sales & Marketing with May and Baker (Sanofi-Aventis) in 1991 before joining Accenture as a Senior Strategy Consultant in 1999.
Juliet also serves on Corporate and non-profit Boards in a non-executive capacity. She is currently on the Boards of Flour Mills of Nigeria and APT Pensions as Independent non-executive member. She is also an EXCO member of Consultative Action Group for the Poor (CGAP) a not for profit agency funded by the World Bank, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and several Bilaterial/ Multilateral agencies.
She holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree, an MBA (Finance track) and is an alumnus of both Wharton College University of Pennsylvania (AMP) and Yale University.
OTU HUGHES
Otu Hughes has over 25 years’ experience in operations and strategy, principal investment, mergers and acquisition as well as capital raising in both the US and Sub-Saharan Africa. He started his career in 1993 with Lehman Brothers, providing strategic and financial advisory services to government entities and companies in privatisation and empowerment issues, notably Brazil (power and mining), Ghana (mining), South Africa (empowerment programmes), amongst others.
Otu joined Deutsche Bank in 1998 as Associate– Mergers, Acquisitions and Corporate Advisory Group with the oversight responsibilities of providing mergers, acquisitions, corporate and strategic financial advisory services to companies and government agencies across industries and countries, rising to Vice President. He is the Co-founder and Principal of Rofgam/Hughes Consulting and also worked at KeyBanc Capital Markets, amongst many others.
Otu is the Co-Founder & Managing Director of Candesco Limited, set up with the primary responsibility of developing and managing off-grid and independent power projects for Sub-Sahara Africa market, providing affordable, clean and stable power to clusters of communities.
Former British chancellor George Osborne is to become a partner at one of London’s most exclusive boutique advisory firms.
Osborne is joining M&A advisory firm Robey Warshaw as the business’ first outside partner.
“Robey Warshaw is the best of the best, advising great businesses on how to grow, and I’m proud to be joining this first-rate team,” Osborne said in statement provided by Robey Warshaw.
Osborne, who left politics in 2017, has become well-known for the portfolio of jobs he has taken on since leaving politics, including editing the London Evening Standard newspaper and advising money manager BlackRock. The former chancellor will give up his other roles to focus solely on Robey Warshaw, which he will join in April.
“We believe that George will significantly enhance the advice we give to clients,” a spokesperson for Robey Warshaw said. “He brings differentiated experience and expertise to our team from his leading roles in global finance over the past decade.”
Robey Warshaw was founded by ex-Morgan Stanley (MS) bankers Sir Simon Robey and Philip Apostolides and former UBS (UBSG.SW) dealmaker Simon Warshaw in 2013. The firm has quickly established a reputation as one of the preeminent firms in the bulge-bracket deal space.
In recent years Robey Warshaw has worked on deals including Comcast’s (CMCSA) $39bn takeover of Sky, BP’s (BP.L) $10.5bn (£7.7bn) acquisition of shale assets from BHP Group (BHP.L), and the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE.L) $27bn takeover of data provider Refinitiv.
Advising on such blockbuster deals has helped the firm make profits of over £200m since its founding. Profits are shared between the company’s three partners. The highest paid partner took home £10m last year and £27.7m the year before that.
Details of Osborne’s pay arrangements were not shared and a spokesperson declined to comment. Osborne, who was chancellor from 2010 until 2016, will be entitled to a profit share as a new partner.
“We remain hugely ambitious about our company’s future and believe that George will help expand our reach, and what we can offer our clients without changing the philosophy or ethos of our firm,” the Robey Warshaw spokesperson said.
Despite its work on major deals, Mayfair-based Robey Warshaw remains small. The firm employs just 12 professionals who advises on deals, supported by 15 administrative staff.
Ecobank Group has recorded a revenue of over N630 billion for the year ended December 31, 2020. This represents a 7% growth when compared to N586.9 posted in the corresponding period of 2019. In its unaudited report submitted to the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday, the pan-African bank stated that value of its total assets now stands at N10.2 trillion after a 19% rise.
The bank also recorded superlative performance in other key financial indices despite the harsh operating environment. Summary of the report showed that Deposits from customers went up 23% to N7.3 trillion; Total equity up 17% to N805.1 billion; while Loans and advances to customers grew by 9% to N3.7 trillion.
However, despite the bank’s good showing in deposits from customers and revenue, profits was impacted by the provisioning for goodwill for the acquisition of Oceanic Bank in 2011. Consequently, the bank ended with profit after tax of N35.9 billion, while profit before tax and goodwill impairment closed at N126.4 billion. The Ecobank Group had stated that it is optimistic that with clean book aftermath of the full provisioning for Oceanic Bank, it will improve on its profitability in 2021 and other years ahead.
First Bank of Nigeria Limited is supporting schools with an array of educational based products and solutions targeted at enabling the acquisition of various facilities to boost the continuous expansion and improvement of the educational sector. Parents are not left out, as the Bank has bespoke products which empowers parents and guardians to meet the educational needs of their children.
The Bank’s educational products and solutions include the FirstEdu Loan, Operational Vehicle Loan, Term Loans for constructing new sites and extension of existing sites, Personal Loan Against Salary (PLAS) and FirstAdvance which enhances Parents/Guardians’ capacity to pay their wards’ school fees.
The FirstEdu loan offers short-term finance to private pre-primary, primary and secondary schools/ registered A level educational institutions with steady flow of income. The product offers opportunity for private schools to access flexible funding to meet urgent cash flow needs, replace old furniture and equipment or assets, purchase of fairly-used school buses, as well as refurbishing dilapidated buildings and classroom blocks. This product helps school owners/proprietors in bridging the “no-income” gap between school terms, and to enhance diverse assets acquisition. It allows schools access up to N20 million with no tangible collateral required apart from the domiciliation of school fees with the Bank. Schools with CAC registration that are yet to get Ministry of Education approval can access up to N2million without collateral for up to 90days. In a bid to cushion the effect of covid-19 pandemic, the Bank is in partnership with Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to finance low-cost private schools at a single digit interest rate where schools can access up to N5million.
The Bank is also in partnership with the apex association of private school owners in Nigeria, National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) to finance member schools at a highly competitive rate. This reduces the cost of borrowing to the customer and eliminates the challenges posed by the provision of additional demanding collaterals.
The Operational Vehicle Loan is targeted at registered businesses. It allows the entrepreneur to acquire brand new vehicles for the day to day operation of the business. Organisations can take advantage of this facility to purchase school buses in the case of school proprietors and even upscale their staff welfare schemes through provision of staff buses. The product terms and conditions is competitive.
Personal Loan against Salary (PLAS) offers customers in paid employment access to cash to meet immediate financial needs such as payment of school fees, medical treatment, holiday expenses, etc. PLAS has a flexible repayment plan spread up to 48 months for our customers’ convenience. There is no equity contribution or collateral requirement.
FirstAdvance is a 30days tenured digital loan also available to salary customers who are in need of assistance to meet immediate financial needs. It empowers customers to access upto 50% of their net monthly salary in less than a minute at any desired time by dialing *894*11# or through our FirstMobile App. Only a salary account domiciled with FirstBank will qualify you for PLAS and FirstAdvance.
Beyond these, FirstBank is at the forefront of promoting virtual learning, whilst exposing not just school children but individuals of all ages to various e-learning initiatives, designed to promote innovation and skills development on emerging technologies through focus areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Coding, Cloud, Internet of Things, Blockchain, Data Science and Analytics, and Cybersecurity.
In achieving this, the Bank has collaborated with Lagos State government, IBM and Curious Learning to ensure the e-learning initiative swiftly moves across the country to school children and individuals with the need to promote the pursuit of knowledge, irrespective of age.
Speaking on the Bank’s support for schools, Mr. Chuma Ezirim, FirstBank’s Group Executive, e-Business & Retail Products, said “at FirstBank, we recognize the indelible roles the educational sector plays in promoting national economic development and we are delighted to support schools with collateral free educational solutions to meet various needs and projects to advance to the next level.”
“As schools proceed with the new term, we enjoin interested schools to visit the nearest branch or the Bank’s website for more information and encourage everyone to access our e-learning driven initiatives to keep learning and get exposed to various opportunities to stay ahead in today’s technologically advanced world.”
Fitch Ratings has assigned Ecobank Nigeria Limited (ENG) a Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of ‘B-‘ with a Stable Outlook, Viability Rating (VR) of ‘b-‘ and National Long-Term Rating of ‘BBB (nga)’. The report, released Thursday, noted that Ecobank Nigeria IDRs are driven by its standalone creditworthiness, as expressed by its Viability Rating (VR).
The VR reflects the constraint of Nigeria’s challenging operating environment and modest core capital buffers amongst others. This is balanced by company profile strengths as well as a solid funding profile and good foreign-currency liquidity, which is enhanced by prudent liquidity management by the Ecobank group.
According to Fitch, “the Stable Outlook on ENG’s Long-Term IDR reflects our view that the bank has sufficient headroom at its current rating to absorb moderate shocks from sustained downside risks to the operating environment, the heightened level of risk in doing banking business in Nigeria and the ensuing risks to its financial performance (particularly asset quality) over the next 12-18 months. The Stable Outlook also reflects our expectations that capitalisation will remain resilient over this period with the bank maintaining adequate buffers over the minimum regulatory requirements”.
Fitch Rating reported that the VR benefits from ENG’s company profile strengths of being part of the leading pan-African Ecobank group. ENG is a 100% owned subsidiary of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI; B-/Stable). ETI is a regional bank holding company with fully-fledged banking subsidiaries in 33 African countries (collectively the group). The group also has a banking license in France and representative offices in Addis Ababa, Johannesburg, Beijing, London, and Dubai. The group’s operations are highly integrated, with all entities connected to a common operating platform and risk management framework, and common branding.
ENG is a material subsidiary for ETI, and its largest single entity, contributing to 23% of group assets at end-9M20. ETI continues to implement a turnaround strategy at Ecobank Nigeria, having deleveraged and de-risked the bank in recent years, although it returned to growth in 2020 and plans above-sector-average loan growth in the medium term. Fitch noted that ENG’s management quality is a relative strength, with ETI appointing experienced bankers to Ecobank Nigeria’s senior team.
“ENG has a solid funding profile, with low-cost current and savings accounts reaching 58% of total deposits at end-9M20 helping the bank to reduce its cost of funding. It has achieved good deposit growth through the expansion of digital channels and its financial inclusion initiatives. Retail and SME deposits to account for 58% of total customer deposits at end-9M20, which results in reasonable deposit concentration, with the top 20 customer deposits representing 29% of the total”. The report stated.
Fitch Ratings also views ENG’s liquidity management as prudent with contingency plans in place. Local-currency liquidity is underpinned by a high share of liquid assets (cash, interbank placements and sovereign securities) representing more than 50% of total assets at end-9M20. ENG’s foreign-currency funding benefits from sizeable interbank deposits, which represented about 15% of total funding at end-9M20. More than half of these deposits (about USD400 million) came from ETI’s affiliates at end-9M20. This reflects the group’s well-established inter-affiliate short-term deposit placement programme (IAP), amounting to USD650 million at end-1H20, which provides ENG with a significant competitive advantage compared with most other Nigerian banks, as ENG is able to rely on IAP funding when foreign-currency liquidity conditions temporarily tighten in Nigeria.
In the recently released Forbes Africa billionaires Aliko Dangote still maintain his position as the continent richest person with a worth $12.1 billion, up by $2 billion from last year’s list thanks to a roughly 30% rise in the share price of Dangote Cement, by far his most valuable asset.
The second richest is Nassef Sawiris of Egypt, whose largest asset is a nearly 6% stake in sportswear maker Adidas, while Nicky Oppenheimer of South Africa occupies the number three position. Nicky who inherited a stake in diamond firm DeBeers and ran the company until 2012, when he sold his family’s 40% stake in DeBeers to mining giant AngloAmerican for $5.1 billion.
The biggest gainer this year is Nigerian cement tycoon, Abdulsamad Rabiu, whose wealth increase remarkably by an extraordinary 77%, to $5.5 billion to become the sixth richest person immediately behind Mike Adenuga of Globacom whose wealth is put at $6.3 billion.
Abdulsamad who has seen shares of his BUA Cement PLC, which was listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange in January 2020, to have doubled in value in the past year and it was this that pushed Rabiu’s fortune up. Rabiu and his son together own about 97% of the company, giving the company a tiny public float. And the laws of The Nigerian Stock Exchange requires that either 20% or more of a company’s shares to be floated to the public, or that the floated shares are worth at least 20 billion naira — about $50 million — a paltry sum, to be sure. A spokesman for the Nigerian Stock Exchange told Forbes that BUA Cement meets the second requirement. (Forbes discounts the value of stakes when the public float of a company is less than 5 %.)
While some got richer by the billions, two persons from the 2020 list of Africa’s richest dropped below the $1 billion mark. In fact, the only two women billionaires from Africa have both fallen off the list. Forbes calculates that the fortune of Folorunsho Alakija of Nigeria, who owns an oil exploration company, dropped below $1 billion due to lower oil prices. And Isabel dos Santos, who since 2013 has been the richest woman in Africa, was knocked from her perch by a series of court decisions freezing her assets in both Angola and Portugal.
The 18 billionaires from Africa this year come from seven different countries. South Africa and Egypt each have five billionaires, followed by Nigeria with three and Morocco with two. Altogether they are worth $73.8 billion, slightly more than the $73.4 billion aggregate worth of the 20 billionaires on last year’s list of Africa’s richest people.
This Forbes list only tracks the wealth of African billionaires who reside in Africa or have their primary business there, thus excluding Sudanese-born billionaire Mo Ibrahim, who is a U.K. citizen and billionaire London resident Mohamed Al-Fayed, an Egyptian citizen. Strive Masiyiwa, a citizen of Zimbabwe and a London resident, appears on the list due to his telecom holdings in Africa.
Net-worth of those on the list is calculated using stock prices and currency exchange rates from the close of business on Friday, January 8, 2021.
