TheCable

Tokunbo Abiru, managing director of Polaris Bank, says the bank is on a path of corporate transformation to reposition the bank among its peers.

Abiru, in an interview, said the bank’s 2019 financial result is a testament of the transformation that started in September 2018 to build a robust foundation for capital preservation and sustainable profitability.

“The bank is currently on a corporate transformation journey, which focuses on five key pillars: process, technology, business strategy, brand, and culture alignment,” he said.

“With regards to technology, we have concluded the first phase of our IT platform refresh to world-class servers and data centres, we are strengthening our cyber-security and network capacity, we have upgraded all our digital channels with robust offerings across mobile banking, internet banking, USSD, POS, ATMs, including agency banking etc.

“As we reposition our IT infrastructure to world-class standards, we are implementing a robust digital transformation to actualise our vision of making Polaris a truly digital bank that makes banking more convenient with customised, value-adding product offerings.

“Polaris Bank now stands on firmer ground with better margins, lower cost of operations for good returns to stakeholders.”

Abiru said the successful turnaround of Polaris Bank has made it a “classic testimony of the turnaround of a troubled bank through a regulator-induced intervention”.

According to the CEO, investments in technology would help the bank harness emerging opportunities and mitigate the disruptive effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on its business.

Speaking on the impact of COVID-19 on the economy, he noted that the COVID1-19 would adversely impact businesses and assured that Polaris Bank would seek ways to maximize all available income sources; while also seeking ingenious means of containing the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic.