Founded only Twenty five years ago, Guaranty Trust Bank has grown to become one of Nigeria’s foremost banks. She is Nigeria’s most profitable bank and one of her largest banks. A year before that, Tayo Aderinokun (Uncle T as he was fondly called) and Fola Adeola decided to form an organisation in which all its employees upheld the highest ethical and professional standards and provided excellent customer service. As cliché as this sounds today, Twenty five years ago, Nigerian banks were the epitome of poor customer service, lack of professionalism and questionable ethics. By this singular focus GTBank became the darling of many corporates and multinationals. When GTBank commenced operations, its excellent customer service culture and professionalism was unprecedented and helped to carve a niche for the bank in the industry.
In the first 10 years of operating all managers were personally trained and mentored by the co-founders with particular focus on the Bank’s stance on ethical issues, customer service as well as equipping these managers with the requisite professional and technical tools needed to perform excellently. These managers and staff were privy to decisions taken by management and many a time, service development, lending decisions and customer related decisions were agreed on through highly interactive and cerebral group meetings.
Despite potential gains and it being common market practice, GTBank refused to transact with unethical clients, thereby excluding a large chunk of business from its books, especially business from the Government sector. They did not even have a Public Sector Business Unit until after 8 years of operating. This stifled their ability to grow quickly in the beginning, however, there were able to successfully grow a brand that was synonymous with excellence on every front.
In 15 years GTBank grew to become Nigeria’s most respected corporate bank with an enviable reputation for ethical conduct, customer service, professionalism and innovation. True to its mission statement, GTBank became a team driven to deliver the utmost in customer service and became synonymous with innovation, building excellence and superior financial performance and creating role models for society. At this point they could not grow bigger as a corporate bank and competition was thinning their margins as other banks had caught on to their strategy. Management decided it was time to re-strategize, but ruled out either a merger or an acquisition and so the decision was taken to grow organically to become a retail focused bank.
The growth of the middle class in Nigeria was a major motivating factor for this decision, and like many other decisions they blazed the trail, seeing potential that other banks would only catch on to years later. They created products that helped with personal loans, mortgages, credit cards and long term savings products amongst others.
Around this time the Central Bank of Nigeria announced measures raising the capital requirements for banks. There were 89 banks in operation at this time and only 11 were considered to be in excellent condition by CBN inspectors. Over the next two years 14 banks would wind up and the remainder would consolidate to become 25 banks. GTBank did not merge with nor acquire any bank. They searched for but did not find any bank with enough quality or one that represented their core values. In 2004, GTBank raised N11 billion from the capital market, enough to meet and surpass their capital requirements and enough to invest in their new retail focused drive.
In September 1996, Guaranty Trust Bank Plc was listed as a publicly quoted company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and in that same year won the Nigerian Stock Exchange President’s Merit award and subsequently in the years 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. GTBank was granted a universal banking license in February 2000 and was later appointed a settlement bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2003. She also became the first Fitch AA- rated bank in Nigeria. In 2006, GTBank was accredited by the International Standards Organisation with ISO 9001, a mark of quality for service providers and the first by any Nigerian bank. In July 2007, GTBank became the first Nigerian company and the first African bank to be listed on the London Stock Exchange. She also became the first Nigerian financial institution to issue a US$350 million Eurobond and a US$750 million Global Depository Receipt (GDR) offer. In December 2009, GTBank successfully completed the first tranche of its US$200 million corporate bond and in May 2011 successfully launched the first non-sovereign benchmark bond from sub-Saharan Africa to the world.
GTBank has branches in Nigeria, Cote dIvoire, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom and currently has an Asset Base in excess of N2 Trillion, shareholders funds of over N200 Billion with over 10,000 employees. GTBank made a profit of N98 billion for the 2014 financial year and is on course to double that this year. GTBank’s business ties extends across all continents with over 15 overseas correspondent banks and finance institutions which include HSBC, Citibank, Bank of China, JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, Afrexim Bank, and BNP Paribas.
GTBank has always built attractive branches, which is line with its policy on improving the customer experience and its image as a provider of quality service. GTBank has unarguably the most aesthetically beautifully designed branches by any Nigerian bank. This helped them to attract customers from all classes of society. Despite their prompt service, GTBank branches across the nation are always full as most customers prefer to bank with GT despite the presence of other banks in close proximity.
Over the years, GTBank has been able to lower considerably its operating expenses through the deployment of technology. They were the first Nigeria bank to spend a considerable amount of money on technological solutions, pre empting the banking technological shift. Today, the GTBank alternative banking channel is one of the most robust platforms in the banking industry and many Nigerian banks have copied the GTBank model. Only recently they introduced products such as GTEasySavers, GT Mobile transfer, and Airtime Top Up. These mobile banking products offer convenient ways for customers to access their accounts, potential customers to open new accounts using their mobile phones or smartphone devices, view their account balances, transaction history and transfer funds.
The current Managing Director/CEO of the bank, Mr. Segun Agbaje said, “We will continue to leverage on technology to make banking, especially payments and transfers, faster, safer and more convenient for all our customers. This service addresses the electronic banking requirements of our customers, irrespective of their phone type”.
Not only has GTBank revolutionized banking in Nigeria, GTBank has become the bank every bank wants to be.