Last week, banking guru and former managing director of defunct Diamond Bank joined the league of bank owners by floating a bank aptly named Signature Bank. This is despite the fact that he is currently gunning for Abia State government house come 2023 on the platform of Labour Party.
However, what most people are unaware of is the fact that since the governorship of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, eluded him, Otti began plotting to own his own bank, one that will be different from the legion of banks that parades the banking space.
So while he pursued his governorship ambition, he equally devoted the same fervour in actualising his banking dream. At some point, he attempted to dabble into publishing but seeing that it would be a distraction, he kept his eyes on the ball – becoming a bank owner and a state governor.
Short of the required funds, Otti began approaching his friends, allies and some possible investors. One of those he approached was Mutiu Sunmonu, the former managing director of Shell Nigeria who sits on the board of several blue-chip companies.
Sunmonu bought into Otti’s idea and besides his readiness to partner with him, he brought in a huge percentage of the N25 billion capital requirement needed to prove that they were not a flash in the pan day dreamers but are serious about owning a bank. Sunmonu’s contribution earned him the chairmanship of the bank.
After successfully raising the required funds, CBN was invited by Otti and his friends who brought in their various contributions, to investigate the source of the capital pooled together and to vet on their applications. CBN went to work to be sure that the source of capital, was legitimate.
It took the regulatory body 10 months of painstaking investigation before a clean bill of health was given to Otti and his investor friends to go ahead and launch their banking brand. After five years, Signature Bank was finally born. According to Otti, his dream to own a bank was partly fueled by his desire to fill the void created by other banks viz a viz repeated unresolved complaints, poor responsiveness, and unsavoury customer experiences encountered regularly.
His desire is for simplicity and ease of doing business and give adequate attention to the dynamic needs of customers, not just within Nigeria but across continents. He hopes to accomplish this by building on the learning points and successes of taking the defunct Diamond Bank from a loss position in 2011 to becoming one of the eight systemically important banks (SIBs) in Nigeria.
Although he claims he isn’t going to hold any active position in his bank but give opportunities to the younger generation to pilot the affairs of the bank, that remains to be seen. While the bank has been ticked off his bucket list, time will tell if his governorship ambition will also be ticked off his bucket list.
The Will