Dr. Alex Otti, former group managing director/CEO of defunct Diamond Bank Plc and governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP) in Abia State in the 2023 elections, has explained the role he intends to play in the newly established Signature Bank Plc, which was officially unveiled in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Otti, who spoke during the unveiling ceremony of the bank, explained that his role is to provide support, experience and contact for the financial institution.
He disclosed that he, alongside other founders of the bank, has put in place an experienced board led by the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Shell Companies in Nigeria and current Chairman of Julius Berger, Dr. Mutiu Sunmonu,
He said: “Few people have wondered if I am going to run the bank. Like a one-time president asked some time ago when he was being persuaded to run for the office a second time, ‘how many presidents do you want to make out of me?’ I, therefore, ask, ‘how many Managing Directors (MDs) do you want to make out of me?’ I had done that over a decade ago, and I believe in giving opportunities to the younger generation.
The newly commissioned bank is expected to provide personal, private and business banking services to the south-south, south-east, north-est region of the country, including Abuja.
The new bank, according to sources is also, expected to begin operations with five other branches located in Port Harcourt, Enugu, Aba, Sokoto and Kano.
After resigning from the rested Diamond Bank as its head honcho in 2014, Otti returned to active politics in his state, Abia State. His resignation had been greeted with mixed feelings.
In particular, the fears in some quarters were that the Abia State-born gentleman was too polished for the murky waters of Nigerian politics. But he seemed to have thought it out, and resolved to contest for governor of Abia State in 2015 on the platform of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.
Though, he lost, he has not rested on his oars, rather, he has continued to pursue his political ambition by throwing his hat into the ring again for the number one job of the state, under the Labour Party.
Under Otti’s stewardship, (before Diamond Bank’s debacle began), the lender made a remarkable return to profitability and recorded impressive growth across all performance indicators year-on-year.
After writing off toxic risk assets which resulted in the loss of N16 billion in 2011, the bank posted a profit before tax of N28.36 billion in 2012 and N32.5 billion in 2013.
The bank also saw its total assets rise from N564.9 billion in February 2011 to N1.18 trillion by December 31, 2012 and N1.52 trillion on December 31, 2013.
Otti also spearheaded the expansion of the defunct Diamond Bank by doubling the full staff count from around 2,000 in 2010 to over 4,000 as at mid-2014, even as he vigorously grew the bank’s footprints from a network of 210 branches in 2011 to over 265 branches three years later.
It was also under his watch that the bank established an international subsidiary in the United Kingdom, in addition to expansion in Francophone West Africa (Senegal, Togo, and Ivory Coast).
It is to be noted that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) classified the defunct Diamond Bank as one of the eight systematically important banks in Nigeria under his watch.
With the entrant of Signature Bank into the Nigerian banking industry, industry watchers are sure of a fresh new scramble for recognition in a terrain filled with already established banks.
