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Heritage Bank’s 8 Years Journey Of Entrenching Business of Banking In Nigeria

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Today marks a worthy milestone in the life of one of the fastest-growing financial service providers, Heritage Bank Plc as it celebrates eight (8) years of entrenching seamless service delivery in the business of banking in Nigeria.

This is a journey that began eight (8) years ago, premised on passion, commitment, doggedness, culture, and hard work amongst others stands today as a reputable financial organization in the Nigeria banking space.

The story began in 2012; a story of hard work and determination when Heritage Bank Plc emerged from a business combination of Heritage Banking Company Limited (HBCL) and Enterprise Bank Limited (EBL) after the acquisition of Societe Generale of Nigeria’s (SGBN) license by IEI Investment Ltd from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) having met all requirements by Nigeria’s apex bank.

Heritage Bank returned 100% of existing SGBN account holders’ funds which were frozen at the closure of the SGBN. This move brought a lot of smiles to the faces of former account holders and inspired many of them to open new accounts with Heritage Bank. In October 2014, Heritage Banking Company Ltd successfully met the requirements of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and the CBN toward owning 100% shares in Enterprise Bank Ltd., after a highly competitive bid process.

This development firmly anchors the Heritage Bank in a rich legacy of technology and innovation in the banking industry. SGBN, which was incorporated in December 1976 and commenced full banking operations in August 1977, pioneered the introduction of e-banking services including its flagship, the 24/7 Cashpoint through the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) in 1990.

With management focused on innovation through technology and a unique philosophy to create, preserve and transfer wealth to its customers, Heritage Bank found itself in a fiercely competitive banking environment but it remained guided by passion, resilience, innovation, and brand architecture that exuded quality service, performance, and sheer excellence.

Still, as big a move as it was, it remained just one of the many strategic moves to change the banking industry and Heritage Bank has made a lot of them and attains giant strides in reshaping the economy since it began operations in 2013 to drive improved investment outcome and job creation.

Success stories of entrenching business of banking in Nigeria:

As a catalytic financial institution, Heritage Bank, through its strategic partnerships with government and private organizations, has continued to make efforts to transform the nation’s economy through championing entrepreneurial schemes for businesses and the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector was not left out, which have always focused on dependable job-creating sectors, such as education, agricultural value chain (fish farming, poultry, snail farming), cottage industry, mining, and solid minerals, creative industry (tourism, arts and crafts), and Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

In recent times, the bank’s response to dealing with the global economic challenge occasioned by COVID-19, which highly impacted SMEs, Heritage Bank PLC has continued to deepen its support to young entrepreneurs in Nigeria to grow their businesses either as start-ups or prospective business owners.

One of such is the last season of the reality TV show The Next Titan, themed “The Unstoppable” that was designed to search for business ideas that are immune to any pandemic, innovations that break boundaries, and technologies that can survive any lockdown. This programme produced a young vibrant entrepreneur, a graduate of the Federal University of Technology Owerri with a Bachelor Degree in Environmental Science who is the Chief Executive Officer of Josult Oil Processing Company, a palm oil processing company in Akwa Ibom State, Joshua Joseph Idiong, as he finally emerged the winner of the Next Titan Season-7, going home with a whooping sum of N10million.

Furthermore, Heritage Bank PLC in partnership with the Honourable Fatima Mohammed (FAMO) Foundation also provided succor to over 300 affected private school teachers and small-medium enterprises (SMEs).

Heritage Bank has continued to blaze the trail on the SME’s space to empower young entrepreneurs in such schemes as the HB Innovation Lab Accelerator programme (HB-LAB), Ynspyre Account, Youth Innovative Entrepreneurship Development Programme (YIEDP), Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL) on Young Entrepreneurship Business Training Programme (YEBTP), Young Entrepreneurs and Students (YES) Grant and Nigerian Youth Professional Forum (NYPF), Big Brother Nigeria, Lagos Comic-Con, among others.

Last year witnessed the Launch of the Nationwide Dukia-Heritage Bank Gold & Precious Metals which stands to create new opportunities for Nigeria to grow its potential reserves of 200 million ounces of gold.

The Nationwide Dukia-Heritage Bank Gold & Precious Metals Buying Centre will fast-track the 10 per cent contribution of the mining sector to GDP by 2026. Referring to these giant strides, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo remarked that the launch of this project between Heritage Bank and ‘Dukia Gold SPV’ would enable Nigeria to mine reserves properly, trade responsibly, refine locally and boost the nation’s foreign reserves.

Heritage Bank has continued to support Nigeria’s aspiration and roadmap to become a leading Information Communication Technology (ICT) Hub in Africa, The Bank doled out the sum of $40, 000 grants to winners of the maiden edition of HB Innovative Lab.
The bank’s commitment is to create enabling environment, resources, and support required to innovate and accelerate impactful solutions with the potential to radically improve financial inclusion/intermediation, health, automobile, agriculture, and other related problems affecting critical sectors of the economy.

For the bank’s giant stride of support to tourism, Federal Government commended Heritage Bank for its commitment to the development and growth of the creative industry.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave the commendation at a two-day Creative Nigeria Summit.

The bank, aimed at boosting Nigeria’s tourism via the creative arts industry supported the sponsorship of exhibition at the National Museum Benin, at the Exhibition Gallery of National Museum Benin by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), in collaboration with the Edo State Government, and the Smithsonian Institute, United States of America.

Also, efforts are being taken by Heritage Bank Plc and the River State government during the National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFEST) to make art and culture a unifying factor and major earner to the contribution of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.

Heritage Bank Plc partnered with the organizers of the International Festival of Contemporary Dance (IFCOD) to host the second edition of One Language, a musical production of intrigue, dance, and drama.

Most prominent of its partnership and supports is the annual Calabar Carnival and festival, tagged “Africa’s Biggest Street Party,” was created as part of the vision of making Cross River State the number one tourist destination for Nigerians and other tourists across the world.

Heritage Bank is not done yet. The bank went further to prove its trend-setting profile by driving the seat of the agricultural financing revolution.

In a bid to support the real sector and unlock food potentials, Heritage Bank Plc provided over N5billion long-term facility under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) to Triton Aqua Africa Ltd (TAAL).

TAAL known as Triton Farm accessed the CACS through Heritage Bank, which was used to set up aquaculture businesses; nursery/hatchery to produce fingerlings and broodstock in Ikeja and earthen ponds for catfish and Tilapia in Asejire, Iwo, and Gambari towns in Oyo State.

Under the arrangement, TAAL will also help small-scale farms increase their fish production by making fingerlings available to them.

In the short term, the loan is expected to help Triton double its current production capacity of 25,000 metric tonnes with a projection to scale it up to 100,000 metric tonnes in five years.

The bank also has thrown its weight behind Globus Resources Limited, a subsidiary of Triton Group, to flag off the second phase of the afforestation programme in Oyo state.

Nigeria’s demand capacity for fish was estimated at 2.7million metric tons and the country currently produces 800,000 metric tons.

Triton is now producing over 25,000 metric tons and with them on board, over 25,000 metric tons capacity will be added to our current production, the company’s projection is to exceed 100,000 metric tons in 5years.

In the state level, Heritage Bank entered into a partnership with the Oyo State government in a multi-billion-naira project to give agriculture a boost.

Under the initiative, the bank supported the Oyo State Agricultural Initiative, OYSAI, a programme designed to revive agriculture, boost agro-allied businesses, and massive empowerment programme for both youth and women across the state through the creation of thousands of jobs in the sector.

This huge, albeit laudable, project that is spread across 3,000 hectares of land in 28 of the 33 Local Government Areas of Oyo State is in three stages: food crop cultivation, cash crop/horticulture, and food processing.

Heritage Bank is supporting agro investors involved in this initiative with funds and advisory services and indications are that the programme has already led to more than 30 per cent increase in food production in the state.

The Bank also supported thousands of smallholder farms in Kaduna and Zamfara states to benefit from the bank’s financial support for rice and soya beans production under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP).

Further, on job creation, Heritage Bank through its establishment of a full-fledged learning and development institute accredited by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), dubbed “The Refinery” successfully trained and employed about 300 new intakes.

In the midst of the bank’s audacity to dare and succeed, industry watchers have continued to ask; how are they doing it? The answers may not be far from the fact that this is one bank whose leadership team continues to exude the charisma of the Midas touch. With Heritage Bank, the MD/CEO, Ifie Sekibo has proven over and over again that whatever he touches, turns into gold.

BIG STORY

AMCON Sells Ibadan DisCo For N100bn

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The Asset Management Company of Nigeria has confirmed the sale of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company.

Gbenga Alake, managing director and chief executive officer of AMCON, revealed the details of the transaction during a media briefing with journalists on Thursday.

In April 2024, the federal government announced plans to sell five electricity distribution companies managed by banks and AMCON.

Ibadan DisCo, which was under AMCON’s management, is among the five companies listed for sale. Others include the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, and Kano Electricity Distribution Company.

During the briefing, Alake stated that the company was sold for N100 billion.

He mentioned that AMCON would soon transfer the company to the preferred bidder.

“Today, I announce to you that Ibadan DisCo has been sold. When we came in, it has already been sold. It was sold for how much?” Alake said.

“We got in and said no, it cannot be. We said they should go and submit a new offer that we were not going to sell for that.

“At the end of the day, we got almost double of what Ibadan DisCos was going to be sold for.”

He explained that the sale has sparked legal disputes, with “so many interests now fighting and writing”.

Alake maintained that despite the matter being in court, AMCON remains confident that the process was properly handled.

“We have sold it… and whatever is still happening in court, we will face it,” he said.

On May 15, reports emerged that the African Initiative Against Abuse of Public Trust, a civil society group, had filed a suit at the federal high court in Abuja against AMCON, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, the Bureau of Public Enterprises, and Ibadan DisCo over an alleged planned sale of a 60 percent stake in the company for $62 million.

The civil society group, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/866/2025, described the sale as “secretive and illegal,” claiming the price was “corruptly undervalued”.

The group also argued that the transaction would result in a $107 million loss compared to the $169 million paid for the same stake during the 2013 privatisation of Ibadan DisCo.

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BIG STORY

Again, NNPC Increases Petrol Pump Price To N925 Per Litre

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The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has raised the petrol pump price to N925 per litre in Lagos.

This adjustment comes just two days after the company had increased the price to N915.

It was gathered that the new price of N925 per litre was reflected at NNPC retail outlets located at Fin Niger, LASU Iba, and Igando, Lagos State.

Major industry players have recently revised their pricing as global crude market instability—driven by the conflict in the Middle East—continues to escalate.

On June 21, Dangote refinery raised its ex-depot petrol price to N880 per litre.

Before this change, the refinery had announced intentions to begin nationwide distribution of petroleum products.

It also revealed the acquisition of 4,000 new compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered tankers to strengthen its nationwide distribution network.

In reaction, the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) expressed concern that the refinery’s forward integration strategy could result in a hidden monopoly and potentially lead to significant job losses within the downstream sector.

Earlier, on June 19, the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) had called for clarification regarding Dangote refinery’s logistics plan for nationwide petrol and diesel distribution.

Experts believe the refinery’s approach could significantly benefit end users, although it may present certain challenges for operators in the downstream sector.

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BIG STORY

Iran-Israel: Petrol May Hit N1,000 Per Litre As Oil Price Soars

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Global crude oil prices are expected to surpass $80 per barrel this week due to rising tensions between the United States and Iran. The oil market has reacted strongly to news of coordinated US-Israeli airstrikes on major Iranian nuclear facilities.

Petroleum product marketers have warned that petrol could soon cost N1,000 per litre, driven by the rising price of crude oil and fluctuations in the foreign exchange market.

This follows a “preemptive defensive strike,” in which the US launched overnight attacks on three major Iranian nuclear sites. According to President Donald Trump, the strike “obliterated” Tehran’s critical nuclear infrastructure, and coincided with an Israeli assault, further intensifying the conflict. Iran is the third-largest crude producer in OPEC.

In response, the Iranian parliament is reportedly taking steps to close the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil transit route responsible for nearly 20 per cent of global supply. The move caused immediate disruptions in the energy market, with Brent crude prices climbing and analysts forecasting further increases.

Energy analysts warned on Sunday that if Brent crude exceeds $80 per barrel, petrol in Nigeria could soon be sold at N1,000 per litre. The Chief Executive Officer of PetroleumPrice.ng, Olatide Jeremiah, noted that private depots are already preparing to raise loading costs.

Jeremiah explained that if crude prices rise above $80 by Monday morning, petrol could be sold for N1,000 at the depots. He pointed out that “Dangote remains a major determinant of petrol price” and that the temporary halt in sales last week by the refinery triggered a spike in prices. The refinery has resumed sales at N880 per two million litres.

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria stated that the ongoing crisis between Israel and Iran continues to drive up crude prices, which is pushing global petrol prices higher.

On Friday, Dangote refinery increased its petrol prices from N825 to N880. In response, MRS Oil Nigeria and other retail outlets raised their pump prices to an average of N955 in the South East and North West.

A correspondent observed that filling stations were selling petrol at prices ranging from N930 to N960, depending on the location, with Lagos having the lowest price at N925 per litre.

Speaking to The PUNCH, IPMAN’s National Publicity Secretary, Chinedu Ukadike, attributed the increase to the instability in both global crude oil prices and the foreign exchange market. He stated that Brent crude rose from around $66 to $77 per barrel.

Ukadike said the changes in crude oil prices and foreign exchange rates directly impact domestic petrol prices. He noted that both Dangote refinery and fuel importers had adjusted prices on Friday in response to these changes.

According to him, the rising cost of lifting 50,000 litres of petrol is putting financial strain on independent marketers, leading them to reconsider their pricing strategies. Petrol prices in some parts of the North have already reached N980 to N1,000 due to higher transportation and logistics costs.

Ukadike said petrol refined by Dangote might not be significantly cheaper than imported products because the refinery sources crude at international rates. He added that “it depends on what the presidential committee on the naira-for-crude deal approves.”

Retail prices are expected to vary by region, with South-South states seeing prices up to N950 per litre due to easier access to marine terminals.

Earlier reports had it that importers recently increased prices following the rise in crude oil. Nigerian crude grades like Bonny Light, Brass River, and Qua Iboe climbed to $79 per barrel after Israel’s military actions against Iran heightened regional conflict fears.

According to Oilprice.com, Bonny Light sold at $78.62 per barrel, while Brent and WTI closed at $77 and $73.84 respectively, exceeding the Nigerian government’s 2025 budget benchmark of $75 per barrel.

Analysts have warned that these higher prices could lead to increased local fuel prices due to more expensive crude input. Since Monday, depots raised petrol prices in response to the escalating Middle East crisis.

Petrol prices rose from N825 to N840 at the start of the week. Rainoil increased its rate by N50 to N900 per litre, while Fynefield and Mainland set depot prices at N930 and N920 respectively.

Other sellers like Sigmund, Matrix Warri, NIPCO, and Aiteo also raised prices to between N840 and N920. SGR adjusted its pump price to N930.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited is expected to update its prices soon. Jorge Leon, Rystad’s head of geopolitical analysis and a former OPEC official, said “An oil price jump is expected.” SEB analyst Ole Hvalbye added that Brent crude could rise by $3 to $5 when markets open.

Ole Hansen of Saxo Bank predicted a possible $4 to $5 increase due to investor repositioning. Brent and WTI had fallen on Friday after the US imposed new Iran-related sanctions, including measures targeting Hong Kong-based entities.

Brent has increased by 11 per cent and WTI by 10 per cent since the conflict began on June 13, with Israel targeting Iranian nuclear sites and Iran responding with missile attacks on Tel Aviv.

Despite stable oil supply conditions and available OPEC spare capacity, analysts say supply disruptions could drive prices even higher, while a de-escalation would reduce risk premiums.

Meanwhile, reports suggest Iran’s parliament has voted to close the Strait of Hormuz. Although not officially confirmed, Esmail Kosari from the national security commission said, “For now, [parliament has] concluded we should close the Strait of Hormuz, but the final decision in this regard is the responsibility of the Supreme National Security Council.”

The Strait of Hormuz, 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, is a crucial maritime passage that connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Approximately 20 per cent of the world’s oil—17 to 18 million barrels per day—passes through it.

 

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