NOVA Merchant Bank Limited has transited to a national commercial having secured approval for the conversion, the Board Chairman, Phillips Oduoza, has disclosed.
Oduoza said the bank’s full commercial operation will begin in July with the launch of the first branch of NOVA bank in Lagos before spreading to other parts of Nigeria.
He disclosed this when he led the board and management members of the bank to a meeting with Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu at the State House, Alausa, Lagos.
Oduoza said “We want to roll out the first branch in Lagos and rolling out first in Lagos implies that we are going to have so many branches because the licence that we have is that of the national Commercial Banking licence. But we are not going to leave a place that has given us a very good environment to start setting up branches elsewhere without first setting up branches here.
“Now for Lagos, what does that imply? An investment in Lagos to support part of the drive for economic activities, creation of employment for people here. And of course, provision of additional banking services to the customers in Lagos.”
He applauded Sanwo-Olu’s government for providing a conducive environment for businesses to thrive in Lagos and expressed the bank’s readiness to partner the governor on his THEMES agenda for the state.
The governor congratulated the bank on its conversion and maintained that the government has a duty to protect and provide an enabling environment for individuals and institutions to thrive within the state.
“For us as a government, it is to continue to ensure that people, our citizens, both corporates and individuals have an environment which they see as home, where security of life and property is important and critical.
“They know too well that the government will not crowd or block initiatives or ideas that will make businesses flourish,” Sanwo-Olu said.
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