Wema Will Compete in 2017 as Smart Technology Induced Bank - Adeyinka

Widely regarded as the longest surviving and most resilient indigenous Nigerian bank, Wema Bank Plc, with innovations, will remain relevant in the market, said Mr. Dele Adeyinka, the Bank’s chief digital officer.

Adeyinka made the remark during a presentation to Oracle Digital Day 2016 held in Lagos recently adding that Wema Bank has over the years, diligently offered a fully-fledged range of value-adding banking and financial advisory services to the Nigerian public and will even compete better in the coming year.

He said that the more a company innovates, the processes tilt towards profitability as culture is a soft and fuzzy concept that many people consider mysterious and impossible. 

Adeyinka said, “We do not want to be disrupted rather we are creating a ‘bank within the bank’ through a culture of innovation to engender growth. Wema Bank will disrupt banking in Nigeria in 2017. It sounds strange to people, but if Leicester FC of England can come from somewhat ‘nowhere’ to lift the league cup, the 71 year Wema Bank has all it takes to compete favourably as a smart bank.

He said that every organisation wants to be more innovative, but define innovation in different ways as they have their own personalities and peculiarities defined by culture- shared values, norms and assumptions.

According to him, to get the culture right, an organisation’s technological apparatuses have to be right coupled with right leadership in helm of affairs.

Adeyinka emphasised that by examining and pulling the strategic levers of innovation, culture changes, especially through constant practice of the strategies.

With a particular reference to the Nigeria’s banking industry, he said that they will either collaborate or “Do it single-handily, but disruption is real. For instance, banks now go to customers, but reverse was the case few years back. Therefore, disruptive technologies have even made operators to be ahead of regulators. They have changed job roles/descriptions to the extent head of operations will soon change of head of digital controlling the applications that connect the bank with the customers”. 

Incorporated in 1945 as a Private Limited Liability Company (under the old name of Agbomagbe Bank Limited) and commencing banking operations in Nigeria the same year, Wema Bank later transformed into a Public Limited Company (PLC) in April 1987 and was listed on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in January 1990.

On February 5, 2001, Wema Bank Plc was granted a universal banking licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), thus allowing the Bank provide the Nigerian public with diverse financial and business advisory services.

However, in 2009, the Bank underwent a strategic repositioning exercise spearheaded by a new management team that has seen its profile rise considerably which finally culminated into its taking a sound strategic decision to operate as a commercial Bank with regional Scope in South-South Nigeria, South-West Nigeria, Lagos and Abuja in 2011.