No Nigerian lender was shortlisted for home grown innovations in financial-technology and electronic banking for this year’s African banker’s Award.
The country, however, has nominations in six categories of the award.
This development knocked the country out of the award for Innovation in Banking and three others which include Award for Financial Inclusion, Best Retail Bank in Africa, and the Deal of the Year – Equity.
This is contained in a statement to herald the awards schedule for Annual Meetings of the African Dewvelopment Bank(AFDB) in Busan, South Korea.
This year’s shortlist sees another year for banks from Morocco and Kenya keenly contesting with Nigeria for most of the categories.
Segun Agbaje – Guaranty Trust Bank, Nigeria was shortlisted under the Banker of the Year category where he would have to slug it out with Mohamed El Kettani – Attijariwafa Bank, Morocco, James Mwangi – Equity Group Holdings Plc, Kenya, and Joshua Oigara – KCB, Kenya.
Nigeria occupied one slot under African Bank of the Year category and would see Guaranty Trust Bank in contest with Attijariwafa Bank, Morocco, Equity Group Holdings, Kenya and the Mauritius Commercial Bank, Mauritius Standard Chartered for the honour.
The African Banker Awards Committee could not consider home grown innovations on financial-technology and electronic banking from Nigeria for award this year.
This however made the West Africa country missing in the Award for Innovation in Banking category and three others which includes, Award for Financial Inclusion, Best Retail Bank in Africa, and the Deal of the Year – Equity.
According to the Chair of the Awards Committee, Omar Ben Yedder, the Group Publisher and Managing Director of IC Publications Group which publishes African Banker, the entries reaffirm that Africa’s banking market are amongst the most exciting in the world.
“The entries reaffirm findings that Africa’s banking market are amongst the most exciting in the world. The categories that caught my eye were innovation in banking – and this year’s entries reflect the transformative role of fintech and also blockchain technology – as well as deal of the year, which is every year a very competitive category.”
“Equity markets were a little slower in 2017, but we saw some interesting deals on the debt side and also transformative infrastructure financing structures. The quality of the entries, and sophistication of the solutions being presented, reflect a buoyant sector in continuous evolution,” he added.
The awards is held under the high patronage of the African Development Bank and, are sponsored by The African Guarantee Fund, Banco Nacional de Investimento (BNI), Groupe Crédit Agricole du Maroc and the Bank of Industry.
