Shareholders of Fidelity Bank Plc, last Friday, at the 33rd Annual General Meeting of the bank, in Lagos, approved the payment of a cash dividend of 22 kobo per share for the 2020 financial year, as recommended by the Board.
During the AGM, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fidelity Bank, Mustapha Chike-Obi, reassured shareholders that the board and management would maintain the high corporate governance standard synonymous with the bank, while also ensuring the bank sustains its growth trajectory in the coming years.
“We will continue to strengthen our enterprise risk management capabilities to ensure the sustainability of our business, while modeling our governance practices to align with international best practices,” Chike-Obi said.
The Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank Plc, Mrs. Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, noted that the bank’s financial performance for the period reflected the resilience of its business model in a challenging operating environment.
According to her, the bank’s retail banking push continued to deliver impressive results as total savings deposits increased by 54.2 per cent to N424.4 billion, making it the eighth consecutive year of recording double-digit growth in savings deposits.
On the strategy for the current financial year, Onyeali-Ikpe highlighted that the bank would continue to focus on redesigning its systems and processes “to enhance service delivery, deepen our cost optimisation initiatives to reduce operating expenses, and enhance our overall risk monitoring capabilities to ensure both internal and external risks are identified and mitigated.”
“Our growth aspirations will be sustained while we continue to identify new opportunities in the new normal.
“On the back of the evolving dynamics in the economy, we will continue to increase the adoption and migration of customers to our digital platforms and increase our retail banking market share through innovative products and services”, she said.
The shareholders expressed confidence in the bank and pledged their support in the year ahead.
For instance, President, Association for the Advancement of the Rights of Nigeria Shareholders, Faruk Umar, commended the bank for posting encouraging performance in 2020 despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
