First bank wins nigeria bank of the year award

FirstBank Plc has been announced as winner of the ¡°Bank of the Year
in Nigeria 2012¡± Award by The Banker Magazine, a publication of the
Financial Times of London.

FirstBank¡¯s Head of Marketing& Corporate Communications, Folake
Ani-Mumuney, received the award plaque from Paul Wallace, Africa
Editor of The Banker and Michael Buerk, a former CNN correspondent and
award host.

The award ceremony, now in its 13th edition, celebrates the success
and major achievements of the world¡¯s leading financial institutions.
Itwas attended by leading players in business and finance circles.

The keenly contested award is regarded as the industry¡¯s standard for
banking excellence and nominees were judged by their ability to
deliver shareholder returns and gain strategic advantage in terms of
market visibility and positioning.

According to the award committee, FirstBank led the sector largely due
to its sustained topflight performance over the years across several
indices.

¡°Its balance sheet, which at the end of September this year stood
just shy of $20 billion, grew 23 per cent in 2011. Its net profits
rose a particularly impressive 95 percent to N66 billion ($410
million). This year looks even better, based on interim results,¡± the
committee said.

The committee also noted that FirstBank had begun to focus more on
costs and efficiency in the past two years. ¡°Plentyof emphasis has
been placed on cross-selling to generate non-interest revenues,
whichgrew 36 per cent in 2011 to N75 billion.

During the same year, it halved its average cost of funds from 3.2
per cent to 1.6 per cent by attracting more low-cost deposits,¡± it
added.

The Banker acknowledged that while FirstBank had continued to build
its already large network of branches, itsrecent focus had been on
mini-branches, which are cheaper than full-service ones.