23rd March, 2012
Ahmed Kuru, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Bank Limited (EBL), says the bank’s continued relationship with Union Bank UK Plc as an offshore partner is based on the fact that it makes a lot of business sense to deal with an institution with vast understanding of the local business environment.
Kuru made the statement when he received the management of Union Bank UK Plc at the corporate head office of the bank in Lagos led by its Managing Director/Chief Executive, Dr. Adekola Ali.
He added that the management at EBL will continue to do business with Union Bank UK Plc because the foreign bank supported the defunct bank that gave birth to the bank, even when the going was tough.
Kuru said: “As I welcome you to our new bank in Lagos Nigeria, I want to use this opportunity to first of all thank you because your bank, from what I know, supported the bank that gave birth to Enterprise Bank all through the period even when most offshore banks were not willing to do business with it.
“Now that we are fully recapitalized with an enviable record of having one of the cleanest balance sheets, I think this is the time to move the bank to the next level.
“In doing that, however, we will not forget some tested and trusted partners like the Union Bank UK Plc for choosing to stick with us as partners in progress. We need your support as always to continue to grow this bank. I thank you for finding time to visit us all the way from the United Kingdom. On our side, we will continue to build on this established mutual business relationship, especially when we know that you have deep knowledge and understanding of the Nigerian and African markets.”
Kuru told his visitors that the current management of EBL has not just a road map of growth but a blueprint to build a highly successful commercial bank with bias for retail as well as the critical sector of the economy like oil and gas as well as energy, just to mention a few.
Even though the bank is a limited liability company at the moment, Kuru emphasised that the intention is to steer the bank as a publicly quoted company, insisting that it is the best way to ensure that all processes run at a globally acceptable standard of sound corporate governance and practices.
Kuru said it is in a bid to achieve all these that the bank has since its inception in 5 August, 2011, spent a lot of resources in rebranding, re-training of personnel, and structural enhancement, among others.
In response, Dr. Ali said his team is in EBL to restate their interest in the partnership. He said with the new development in the bank, they see EBL as a new start-up bank and will want to be part of its systematic growth.
We want to work together with EBL and grow together. For that reason, we have opened up a lot of business opportunities, which will be mutually beneficial to both EBL and Union Bank UK Plc.”
—Henry Ojelu