Wole Olajide
Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe is one of the few women shaking the banking industry in Nigeria. This brilliant lady assumed office as Managing Director/CEO of Fidelity Bank on January 1, 2021.
Mrs. Onyeali-Ikpe has been an integral part of the transformation team at Fidelity Bank in the last six years. She was formerly Executive Director, Lagos and South West, overseeing the bank’s business in the six states that make up the South West region of the bank. She led the transformation of the Directorate to profitability and sustained its impressive year-on-year growth, across key performance metrics, including contributing over 28% of the Bank’s PBT, Deposits and Loans.
She is a consummate professional of over 30 years’ experience across various banks including Standard Chartered Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and Citizens International Bank Limited, where she held several management positions in Legal, Treasury, Investment Banking, Retail/Commercial Banking, Corporate Banking. She has been involved in the structuring of transactions in various sectors including oil & gas, manufacturing, aviation, real estate and exports.
As an Executive Director at Enterprise Bank Plc, she received formal commendation from the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) as a member of the management team that successfully turned around Enterprise Bank Plc.
Mrs. Onyeali-Ikpe holds Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Master of Laws (LLM) degrees from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Kings College, London, respectively. She has attended executive training programs at Harvard Business School, The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania, INSEAD School of Business, Chicago Booth School of Business, London Business School and IMD amongst others.
She is also an Honorary Senior Member (HCIB) of The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).
Under her watch, Fidelity Bank Plc achieved growth in its topline and bottom line figures in the first Quarter of 2021.
The Bank reported Gross Earnings N55.122 billion, up by 7.75% from N51.159 billion reported in Q1 2020.
Profit after tax grew by 63.68% to N9.59 billion from N5.859 billion achieved in the first quarter of 2020. Earnings per share in Q1 2021 increased to 33 kobo from 20 kobo reported in Q1 2020.
Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe recently announced that her management plans to make the bank one of the Tier 1 banks in Nigeria by 2025. Nigeria’s Tier 1 banks include First Bank, UBA, Guaranty Trust Bank, Access Bank, and Zenith Bank.
The CEO revealed this at the bank’s recent Annual General Meeting (AGM). She also added that the bank aimed to achieve a total of 7.5% of the total market share of deposits by 2025.
“We will digitalise our processes; ensure that we have strong staff welfare by taking care of our employees.
“Employees are a very critical resource for an organisation to move forward and we would continue to be innovative to be competitive in the industry”.
Fidelity Bank is a full-fledged commercial bank operating in Nigeria, with over 5 million customers who are serviced across its 250 business offices and various other digital banking channels.
Focused on select niche corporate banking sectors as well as Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Fidelity Bank is rapidly implementing a digital based retail banking strategy which has resulted in exponential growth in savings deposits over the last Six (6) years, with over 40 percent customer enrollment on the Bank’s flagship mobile/internet banking products.
Quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Fidelity Bank Plc began operations in 1988 as a Merchant Bank. In 1999, it converted to Commercial Banking and then became a Universal Bank in February 2001. The current enlarged Fidelity Bank is a result of the merger with the former FSB International Bank Plc and Manny Bank Plc in 2005.