First Bank Applauds Customers’ support

Nigeria’s premier and leading financial services provider, First Bank of Nigeria Limited has expressed its appreciation to the public – especially its customers – for their continued patronage of its services during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Further to, the lender has assured the public that stringent measures have been implemented to ensure its branches and locations across the country operate in line with the health and safety guidelines issued by the  to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Expressing the bank’s delight at welcoming customers to its branches and locations from today when  gradual lifting of the lockdown began, First Bank Nigeria Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, noted that safety measures implemented by the lender included ensuring that wearing face masks was now mandatory; maintaining social distancing by reducing physical contact by at least one meter from the next person and queue guides and markings, as well as enhancing the practice of personal hygiene by  providing hand washing stations and hand sanitisers.

Speaking on the impact made by the bank across its sub-Saharan business, the CEO said: “We are glad that our investment in technology over the years has really borne fruit as many of our staff were able to work remotely during the lock down with effective IT support to hand.  We were therefore able to actively support our customers, their families and businesses through these challenging times.

Dr. Adesola Adeduntan explained further that, “we ensured business continuity across eight countries – Nigeria, Ghana; Democratic Republic of Congo; Sierra-Leone; the Gambia, Guinea; Senegal and United Kingdom.  We recognize that this has truly been a trying period and are poised to continue to provide as much support as we can to our customers and communities we operate in.”

He said that during this period it proactively reviewed products and services to support customers better and expressed his appreciation to Nigerians for the whole hearted adoption and patronage of its electronic services, as these indeed demonstrated the trust which the public repose in the bank.

“It is for this reason; putting our customers first, that our bank working to regulatory, federal and state government directives worked assiduously to keep over 50 per cent of our branches open across all nooks and crannies of the country.

At the same time the call centre was restaffed in the most efficient manner and retooled as we provided even more opportunities for our customers to reach us for their banking needs”

Notably, on community impact, the Bank partnered with other organisations in the private sector to collectively help those most impacted by this pandemic. It has contributed N1billion and several volunteer staff towards the efforts of the Nigerian Private Sector Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) to meet the intervention objectives in the key areas of health; testing, provision of much needed health infrastructure, isolation units and raising public awareness and where needed providing food to the most vulnerable.