Fidelity Bank maps out growth path as it turns 10
Indigenous private bank Fidelity Bank has turned 10 years and has already outlined a number of strategies that will augment the bank’s growth and relevance in the Ghanaian economy.
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By this milestone, Fidelity Bank has already opened a subsidiary in China, Fidelity Asia Bank, and grouped its local business into two divisions– Corporate and Investment Banking and Retail Banking – both of which have divisional directors.
“As we turn 10, we are putting a lot of thought into where we want to be in the future. In the next 10 years, we expect to build on the foundation we have laid and the information and communication platform we have put in place to roll out innovative products and services to our clients,” the Group Chief Executive of the bank, Mr Edward Effah, said at a customer appreciation dinner in Accra.
The event, which assembled some customers of the bank, also saw the re-launch of the bank’s re-packaged Prestige Banking, targeted at providing value added services to its high income-earning clients.
Mr Effah said for the next phase of the bank’s journey, it would pursue its regional strategy after strengthening the local business by consolidating its position as a top three bank, list on the Ghana Stock Exchange and continue to make increased contributions to the growth and development of the Ghanaian economy.
Fidelity Bank has already been supporting a lot of development transactions in the local economy. It was the only Ghanaian bank that participated in the $1.8 billion cocoa syndicated loan, and according to Mr Effah, the bank has also been financing the cocoa value chain for its belief in the sector.
It has financed a couple of big ticket power and energy projects undertaken by the Volta River Authority (VRA) and other private sector payers, partly financed the Job 600 project which serves as offices for Parliamentarians as well as Ghana’s Peacekeeping Mission abroad.
Mr Effah thanked customers of the bank for their support which had enabled them to win numerous awards with the recent ones including the Bank of the Year Award and the Most Socially Responsible Bank in the country.
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Capital market
With 75 branches and 115 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), the bank is ready to float part of its shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange to enable Ghanaians to own a part of the bank within the next five years.
“We have plans to do an Initial Public Offer (IPO). It is foreseeable that in the next two to five years, we will open up the bank and invite local shareholders to take equity in the bank, because we are truly a Ghanaian bank, we want to be here for Ghanaians,” he stated.
Mr Jim Baiden explained that although the bank’s board had approved the plan and the Securities and Exchange Commission already contacted in the early days of hatching the idea, the details would emerge as it prepared to launch the IPO.
The one bank concept
Fidelity Bank is also pursuing a concept it calls the ‘One Bank Concept’, which presents the bank to customers as a single seamless entity, with synchronised products and services and complementary roles irrespective of which subsidiaries they are domiciled with.
Therefore, whether in Ghana or Asia, customers of the bank will be able to transact seamless transactions, such as transferring funds across without paying fees.
“The benefits are that even if you’re in Ghana, you can access the services of Fidelity Asia Bank which specialises in rolling out the wealth management services. This is because a lot of high net worth Ghanaians do not want to place their monies locally, but offshore, which they could now do with the Fidelity Asia subsidiary,” the Managing Director of Fidelity Bank, Mr Jim Baiden, explained.
Mr Baiden said the patronage of the service was increasing with clientele expanding across West Africa.