Nigeria’s GTB, FBNQuest, FirstBank emerge top nominees for 2018 African Banker Awards

Nominees for the 2018 African Banker Awards have been announced with Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB), FBNQuest Merchant Bank and First Bank of Nigeria Limited among the shortlist.

Guaranty Trust Bank is nominated for the Bank of the Year Award while its managing director, Segun Agbaje, got shortlisted for the African Banker of the Year.

First Bank of Nigeria (FirstBank) and its sister company, FNBQuest Merchant Bank were nominated for Socially Responsible Bank of the Year and Investment Bank of the Year respectively.

Other Nigerian nominees include Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund – Chapel Hill Denham (Infrastructure Deal of the Year); and Viathan – Renaissance Capital, and $300m Diaspora Bond – Standard Bank/FBNQuest Merchant Bank (The Deal of The Year –Debt).

This year’s shortlist specifically sees another strong year of presence for banks from Nigeria, Morocco and Kenya. Ecobank, Standard Bank, and Standard Chartered, which have a large footprint across the continent, also featured across several categories.

The awards, which are hosted by African Banker magazine, will be held during the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) at the end of May in Busan, South Korea.

The finalists, selected by an expert judging panel of bankers and business leaders, will be announced at the African Banker Awards ceremony, which will take place on Wednesday 22nd May.

Chair of the Awards Committee, Omar Ben Yedder, the Group Publisher and Managing Director of IC Publications Group, which publishes African Banker, said that he was once again impressed by the quality and breadth of entries this year.

“We saw McKinsey earlier in the year releasing a very positive report analysing the banking landscape in Africa. The entries reaffirm their findings when they say Africa’s banking market is amongst the most exciting in the world. The categories that caught my eye were innovation in banking – and this year’s entries reflect the transformative role of fintech and also blockchain technology – as well as deal of the year, which is a very competitive category each year.

“Equity markets were a little slower in 2017, but we saw some interesting deals on the debt side and also transformative infrastructure financing structures. The quality of the entries, and sophistication of the solutions being presented, reflect a buoyant sector in continuous evolution.”

The awards, which are held under the high patronage of the African Development Bank and, are sponsored by the African Guarantee Fund, Banco Nacional de Investimento (BNI), Groupe Crédit Agricole du Maroc and the Bank of Industry.

Ecobank will be the hosts of the African Banker Awards cocktail reception prior the awards. The Gala Dinner and Awards presentation will take place at the Paradise Hotel, Busan.