The Founder/Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc, Mr. Jim Ovia, was the Guest Speaker at the second edition of the Nigerian British Chamber of Commerce’s Sharing Experiences series. Responding to questions from participants, Ovia emphasised that successful brands were built through innovation, adding that in a world ravaged by COVID-19, businesses must adopt creativity and innovation in order to remain in business. Obinna Chima brings the exempts:The Zenith Bank brand is a vision we created 30 years ago.
With the banking industry going through the biggest innovation change, what challenges do fintechs pose to the traditional bank? Firstly, you must have integrity. Integrity is defined as your word is your bond. Integrity is that you must respect corporate governance, you must respect rule of law, you must respect and honour contracts. Even though when the contracts were drafted, you suddenly realised that it did not favour you anymore and that you are going to lose money, but it is a contract and so you must honour it. That is integrity. That is what we do at Zenith Bank and that is what we think people should do.
What tips do you have for innovators in Nigeria to overcome the myriad of challenges that the peculiarity of our environment presents? The youths are the future of any nation. We must empower the youths, encourage them and we must sponsor the youths so that they would be to achieve their dream.