Tuesday 22 January 2008

At The First Inland Bank European Investment Forum


Okey Nwosu, CEO and Managing Director of First Inland Bank Plc led an all-star cast of his management team including the Chairman of the Board, Dr. Theo Chike Osanakpo (SAN) to the Grand Ballroom of the Park Lane Hilton Hotel, London on Wednesday, January 17th 2008 to present to European investors and Nigerians in the diaspora the ongoing 100 Billion Naira public offer of the bank.

Amongst the guests were fund managers from top European finance houses, and also distinguished Nigerians including Nigeria’s Acting High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ambassador Dozie Nwanna and the Minister of Trade at the High Commission, Mr. G.A. Zakari.

The Bank’s CEO, Mr Nwosu impressed the audience with his 3-part presentation which focused on the Nigerian economy, the Nigerian banking sector and the First Inland Bank public offer. He said that First Inland Bank is one of the success stories of the post-consolidated banking sector in Nigeria and charged guests to help spread the message of the bank’s offer. “We urge you to take advantage of the offer and to also share in our success story, at N9.50 kobo per share; you can see that this offer is of great value to the discerning investor”.

Speaking on the bank’s current position in the Nigerian banking sector, Mr Nwosu said that the bank currently has a network of 200 branches nationwide and is a leader in technology product offering. “This is our niche, the ability to deploy cutting-edge technology in all our product offerings in the service of our customers who are constantly delighted by our commitment and passion to exceed their expectations”. He also said that although First Inland Bank is currently in the Top 10 of Nigeria’s biggest banks, the bank is still on course to becoming one of the top 5 banks in Nigeria in the next 5 years, “Most importantly we hope to grow our balance sheet by 1 Trillion naira by 2009”. Concluding, he summarised for the audience the reasons for the bank’s offer which he said will be used for branch expansion, IT upgrade, developing subsidiaries in local and international markets and finally to boost working capital.

Mr Dozie Nwanna thanked the officials of the bank for bringing the offer to the attention of Nigerians in the diaspora. “We are always delighted at the High Commission when Nigerian banks come into town. As you can see, i have the Minister of trade at the High Commission with me here; this is to show how important we value events like these”. Mr Nwanna also pledged the support of the Nigerian High Commission to First Inland Bank and to other Nigerian banks wishing to come to London to source for investments.

Speaking later, Mr Christian Udechukwu, CEO of BusinessinAfricaevents.com who facilitated the event thanked the guests for coming out to support the bank and hoped that as indicated, they would avail themselves of the opportunity of investing in the bank’s stock.

Other guests present at the event were Femi Okutubo (Publisher, Trumpet Newspaper), Senator Onyeabo Obi, Dr. Mark Abani, (Head of Process & Strategy, HM Revenue & Customs), Sarah Macinnes (Regional Director, Middle East & Africa – Int. Herald Tribune), Mike Abiola (Publisher, African Voice), Lady Olga Maitland (CEO, IAMTN) and many more.

First Inland Bank was formed out of a merger between First Atlantic Bank Plc, Inland Bank Plc, IMB International Bank Plc and NUB International Bank Ltd. For further information about First Inland Bank Plc, visit http://www.firstinlandbankplc.net/.

The first Inland public offer closes on the 31st of January 2008.

To download Okey Nwosu’s power point presentation, click here.

Pictures of the event could be viewed on this blog: http://thelongharmattanseason.blogspot.com/

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