Nairametrics was live at Fidelity Bank Plc’s 31st Annual General Meeting which took place today.
Here are key highlights from the question and answer session held during the event.
Chief Timothy Adesiyan President Extraordinary of the Nigerian Shareholders Solidarity Association (NSSA) congratulated the bank on its push into the digital space.
Chief Farouk Umar a shareholder sought to know the strategies the bank had in place, in the event of the CBN removing ATM withdrawal charges.
Nona Awoh, a shareholder activist lamented the huge amount of unclaimed dividends which stood at N2.6 billion.
I think that one of the things we can do and which they must do is a relationship between the office of the company secretary coupled with the registrar and an in house person or unit for investor relations.
He also commended the directors of the bank for all undergoing training in the 2018 fimancial year.
Nnamdi Okonkwo the bank’s MD responded to the questions.
In response to a question from Patrick Ajudua, a shareholder, Okonkwo stated that the conservative pay out was to enable the bank conserve capital.
We want you to remember that Fidelity Bank without fail in the last twelve years has paid dividend consistently We are not changing out policy of paying out between 30% to 50% of profit after tax. We will keep that policy. However we want your bank to strong in terms of capital adequacy. When the board takes a decision to pay lesser dividend than expected, just know that we are planning a bigger dividend in the future.
Digital drive
In response to a question from a shareholder on the bank’s plans to diversify its revenue stream, Oknokwo stated that the bank had invested massively in technology, and was growing digital revenue.
Our 5 year strategic plan is very clear on how else we can grow. That’s why we invested a lot in techology, We are using technology to drive our retail banking play. That’s why our fee income has risen. 81.5% of all our transactions are now done through digital channels.
Okonkwo also disclosed that while the bank’s ATM income is approximately 2.5% of fee income, it would deepen its other aspects of fee income to make up for any revenue lost in the event of ATM charges being scrapped.
The bank’s chairman Ernest Ebi disclosed that the bank was 2 years into a five year plan to becoming a tier one bank.
