Ebong drives the stallion to consistent stellar performance with Project GEAR
By AMECHI OGBONNA
Thursday, April 17, 2008

At about 90 years when the business life cycle of most organizations would have headed for the cliff, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, has rather emerged as one of the greatest phenomena in the Nigerian financial landscape.

Although the journey to present enviable height of the big strong and reliable bank began in 1917, when it first opened a business office as one of the first financial institutions in the country, much of the credit for its consistent growth pattern must be ascribed to its leadership foresight and vision for having sustained most of the virtues inherited from its founding fathers.

Little wonder why such rich heritage has continued to attract laurels and recognition to the organization, both within and outside the country on account of its excellent performance in various components of the nation’s economy.

Close observers of the financial sector were however not surprised that the bank which was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 1971, had won the exchange’s President Annual Merit Award for a record 12 times, a feat perhaps no other institution has recorded in the annals of the country’s capital market.
Partnering Black Rock international in the onerous task of managing part of Nigeria’s foreign reserves following its listing among the first 14 indigenous banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Union Bank has already began leveraging on the opportunity that mandate offers its stakeholders, to structure a $150million naira –linked bilateral loan agreement with Merrill Lynch International.

Competent international market sources confirm that agreement was the first ever, international debt raising initiative by the bank, as well as the first offshore debt raising by any Nigerian bank, since the recent credit turmoil that hit the international markets.

However, a clearer indication that Union Bank’s achievements in the Nigeria’s financial industry has conferred a seal of global recognition on the brand, can be traced back to the years, between 2000 to 2004, it was named the “Banker of the Year” for Nigeria, by the Banker Magazine, a subsidiary of the popular Financial Times of London, which also ranked it among the world’s best banks between 2006 and 2007.

Perhaps it was in an attempt to buttress that classification, that the 2007 national long and short term ratings of A+ (nga) and Fi (nga) respectively, were given the bank by Fitch Global Ratings, a foremost international rating agency, as well as issuer default rating (IDR) B+ which stable look confirmed that the bank’s competitive rating was indeed one of the most significant in the entire Nigerian financial sector.
Fitch had explained that the F1 rating was a further indication that Union Bank had the strongest capacity for timely payment of financial commitments.

The organization stated in addition, that the IDR short term national and support ratings reflected the probability of support for the bank, in case of need by the Nigerian financial sector regulators, stressing that its well established domestic franchise would mean a high level of willingness to support, even though this propensity was limited by the BB- IDR rating assigned Nigeria by the same agency.
Fitch explained that Union Bank’s 2007 robust financial performance was due to consistent improvement in the economic activities coupled with a buoyant credit demand, which was also attributed to growing depositors confidence in the organization.

This assessment was arrived at after the Batholomew Ebong -led management grew total deposit to N411.5billion in 2006 and later much significantly to N482.3billion in 2007.
According to Fitch, Union Bank’s market risk remains one of the lowest in the country, while its liquidity situation was adjudged adequate and possibly lead to higher propensity for future improvements in earnings, considering management’s huge investment in information and communications technology, as well as other risks and control structures that can give it a better gearing for competitive advantage among its peers.

More importantly, the management has taken steps to diversify the groups income stream through adequate empowerment of the various subsidiaries of the bank, including Union Bank UK Plc which now operates as full fledged commercial bank in the United Kingdom, whose management recently visited Nigeria to commission three of its representative offices in Lagos, Abuja and PortHarcourt. To ensure that the business community gets value for their money, Ebong assured during the visit that the operations of the UK bank would be recapitalized soon, so as to empower the bank to handle some of the world’s big ticket transactions, especially in oil and gas as well as telecommunications.
The recapitalization initiative is likely to be consummated along with the planned public offering that the Union Bank Group is planning for the Nigerian market.

For most customers of the bank, the 2007 signing of a major franchise agreement with MoneyGram International could not have come at a better time than now, when competing services are suffering severe credibility problems arising from some unethical practices which blew open last year.
Even the visiting officials MoneyGram, admitted at the signing ceremony in Lagos, that the deal with Union Bank translated to being visible in over 400 additional locations across the country. It was evident since then that Union Bank’s entry into the fund transfer segment of the Nigerian financial industry has revolutionized the face of competition in the market.

Mr Batholomew Ebong’s first two years as Group Managing Director and Chief Executive of Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, have left some indelible milestones for which all its stakeholders would ever remain grateful. Needless to say that it was on the basis of those landmark achievements that the man had no problems securing another two-year term at an extra ordinary general meeting held in Kano last September to enable him complete some of his laudable Project Gear initiatives.
The GMD’s winning formula was captured in his Project Gear initiative which seeks to reposition the bank to become one of the most profitable banks, not just in Nigeria, but also on the African and global arena.

Project GEAR, is an acronym, which accurately describes the objectives of the transformation programme being implemented by the management.
Under this initiative, management intends to grow the bank from good to great, by eclipsing competition and aligning the organization’s strategy, its people, processes and technology for more efficiency.
Ebong realized that the Stallion cannot continue to sleep when there aw abundant opportunities waiting to be exploited to improve the lot of stakeholders and the Nigerian economy as a whole. The ongoing project was therefore seen as a step to adequately reposition the giant by leveraging on information technology super high way to recapture lost grounds and continue as recharged entity to deliver quality services to customers.

According to him, Project GEAR is conceived as the catalyst needed to revamp the bank’s core strategies, leap it into a new market, and attempt major transformation and corporate innovation.
The project is about fundamental changes in business processes and strategies which are expected to make the organization better and more nimble in meeting the challenges of Nigeria’s dynamic financial services industry.

However since its launch over a year ago, Project GEAR has invariably become the road map that guides management and staff in charting a new course for the bank, having been accepted as an initiative that can secure the bank a comfortable place in the big league of the Nigerian and African financial markets.
It could admitted without much ado, that one major outcome of this management initiative, is that the policy and strategic environment for Union Bank is fast changing for better, unlike before when corporate strategy was considered the prerogative of top management.
Today, Ebong has introduced a platform that gives every stakeholder an opportunity to make credible contributions on management and policy matters in a bid to move the organization forward.
It was in an effort to strengthen and decentralize decision making processes in the bank, that Ebong, created additional 10 area offices across the country to raise the of area offices and decision points to 23, a development that has enhanced the bank’s business.

He noted that the objective for creating the offices was to further decentralize operations of the bank and position it to respond adequately to the unfolding domestic and global challenges in the present banking dispensation, stressing that the new structure would bring the bank closer to the customers and ensure that they enjoy immense benefit of its transformation programme.

One other area that the Union Bank helmsman has score a major point, is on staff welfare. Prior to his appointment, staff remuneration in the bank ranked among the lowest in the entire banking industry, a situation that led to a high rate of labour turnover in the organization. As a matter of fact, staff morale, and motivation, particularly among middle to junior staff cadre was at their lowest ebb.
But on assumption of office, Ebong took steps measures to boost staff welfare and morale through a wholesale review of employee remunerations, that included lots of other welfare packages that now make the bank very competitive within the industry.