Sterling Bank wins ‘Innovative ICT banking product of theYear’

Sterling Bank Bags Innovative ICT Banking Product of the Year Award.
Sterling Bank Plc has won the Award for the Innovative ICT Banking Product of the Year following its commitment to the provision of quality banking services across all segments in the nation’s Banking industry. The Nigerian Telecoms Awards which took place in Lagos, the product “Social Lender” was adjudged the most innovative banking solution and this comes barely two months after the Bank was awarded the “Most Innovative Award” at the BusinessDay award event.
Social lender, a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of the Bank is a peer-to-peer quick cash solution using Twitter and Facebook, two of the most important social media platformspopular among young Nigerians. Launched by the Bank over two months ago and with over 3000 requests and 2000 processed, the solution developed by BINCOM ICT, a partner organization on the project has bridged the gap of immediate fund access for social media users.
The award, according to the organizers, was based on the overwhelming industry recommendation of very competent officers, coupled with the independent research and assessment of the sector.
The citation reads: “On this note, we confirm that Sterling Bank’s Social Lender has been awarded the Innovative ICT Banking Product of the Year. Your product ‘Social Lender’ is a unique solution with corresponding huge impact on the society”. The Secretary General of Nigerian Telecom Awards, Otunba Biodun Ajiboye, explained how award recipients were selected: “The race for the 2014 awards began in August with performance monitoring of the various possible nominees. About 750 professionals were contacted to handle the nominations after which consultants were saddled with the arduous task of perusing the nominations viz-a-viz the competence of the nominees.
Speaking on the Award, the Bank’s Executive Director, Strategy & Finance, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman described the Award as a reward for innovation stating the position of the Bank on supporting creative solutions and ideas.
According to him “At Sterling Bank we continue to look for ways to make banking easy for all Nigerians by introducing simple but innovative products and services to meet their needs. We are therefore delighted by this Award because it shows that people have taken a keen interest in what we are doing and also that we are making the right impact.
Sterling Bank Plc is a leading commercial bank in Nigeria and one of the country’s fastest growing banks. Originally incorporated in 1960 as NAL Bank (the country’s first investment banking franchise), it acquired the operations of the erstwhile Equitorial Trust Bank in November 2011 in pursuit of its growth and expansion plans. The bank currently operates out of 170 branches, about 5000 POS and over 504 ATMs across the Nigeria.