Sanwo-Olu Advocates More Investment as Nova Bank Commences Commercial Operations 

Samuel Mobolaji

The governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has called on companies and individuals in Nigeria to invest more in the country as shareholders of Nova Bank Limited commit to raising the needed capital for the bank as it commenced commercial operations in Lagos.

Nova Bank had obtained a commercial banking license having raised funds from its shareholders last year, transitioning from a merchant bank. Speaking at the opening of its first commercial branch in Lagos, Sanwolu, commended the shareholders of the bank saying their faith in the Nigerian economy had prompted them to invest in the bank.

He further said, “Where Nova has started today, let other businesses that are on the borderline and are not sure, know that this is where you should be for investment, in your country and your state and we want to assure you that everything that we need to do as an enabler of the environment we will continue to do.

“We have seen what China has done to the world, we are seeing what India is doing to the world. The next hub is Nigeria and we all owe today and our tomorrow that sense of responsibility that will make this country compete, not just in Africa but with other countries in the world.”

On his part, the chairman of Nova Bank Limited, Mr Philip Odozua, revealed that the shareholders of the bank, having raised funds through a rights issue last year to transition the bank into a commercial bank, have shown readiness to raise the needed capital to meet the new capital requirement.

Stating that Nova Bank, with a focus on contributing to the economy, is set to disrupt the Nigerian banking space. “We have been very successful in the merchant banking space, which is the space where you attend to wholesale banking clients and corporate commercial banking clients but this time around we want to take the success to the retail market and the retail market has far more population space.

“So, we want to take this excellent service to many more people in Nigeria, because we know is going to make a more significant impact on the economy and that’s just basically what you want to do. For us to do this, our shareholders who believed so much in the bank, were able to raise capital through a rights issue last year to meet the capital requirements of the commercial bank, and they will do it again and they have committed that they are going to do it and they are so determined because it is not about making money. It is about leaving a legacy so we will do it with ease,” he pointed out.

Managing director of the bank, Mr Wale Oyedeji, speaking at the commissioning of the branch, noted that “we have been around for five years as a wholesale bank, and I think we’ve done fairly well in that space with the way we’ve managed our relationships with customers at the high end. It’s about time we spread that to the retail SME space, which our previous license didn’t allow us to do.”