These 5 Awards Confirm CEO Onyeagwu Is Truly On A Mission At Zenith Bank
Four years after the appointment of Ebenezer Onyeagwu as the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Bank – June 1, 2019 – SocietyNow.Ng’s takes a look at how well he has done.
This check is being done through the eyes of five awards that testify to the expertise that the experienced banker and financial has brought to bear.
The Information available to SocietyNow.Ng revealed that one of the early indicators of Onyeagwu’s performance that resulted in a recent double-digit in gross earnings from NGN765.6billion (2021) to NGN945.5 billion (2022) was the recognition of Zenith Bank as the “Best Bank in Nigeria” by the Global Finance Magazine’s Best Banks Awards in 2020.
Zenith Bank won the award again in 2021.
The 2021 edition was the 28th Annual Best Bank Awards Winners in Africa.
Zenith Bank made the winners list of that particular edition along with Banks from 35 African countries recognized by the highly respected United States of America Magazine, Global Finance.
According to information available to SocietyNow.Ng, the Editors at Global Finance decided winners in each country based on worldwide extensive consultations with corporate financial executives, bankers and banking consultants, and analysts.
The criteria employed for consideration were two folds: subjective and objective.
The objective gauge enfolds – growth in assets, profitability, geographic reach, strategic relationships, new business development, and innovation in products.
The subjective barometer encompasses – the opinions of equity analysts, credit rating analysts, banking consultants, and others involved in the industry.
And Zenith Bank passed “the rigorous examinations” year in, year out to take the award regarded as “one of the most coveted and credible awards, globally” in the “early days” of Onyeagwu as Group Managing Director.
Another indicator that attested to Onyeagwu’s training in reputable institutions of learning in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America in his early years as Zenith Bank’s Chief Executive Officer was Zenith Bank’s winning the Most Valuable Banking Brand In Nigeria in 2021.
The award is annually given by Banker Magazine.
Zenith was named the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria in the Banker Magazine Top 500 Banking Brands for the fourth time (back-to-back) in 2021, a development that bore witness to Onyeagwu’s hardcore stance to increase rather than lower the bar since he came on board as Group Managing Director.
The ranking published in the February 2021 edition of The Banker Magazine of the Financial Times Group in conjunction with London-based Brand Finance listed only Zenith from Nigeria in the global ranking of banks.
Zenith Bank under the watch of Onyeagwu achieved this feat in the face of the “challenging macroeconomic environment” imposed by the world economy crippling COVID-19 ( Coronavirus) pandemic.
Following up on these laurels, Zenith Bank was announced as the Bank of the Year in Nigeria in The Banker’s Bank of the Year Awards 2022 by global industry barometer – The Banker Magazine, Financial Times Group, United Kingdom.
The organizers declared at the time that the “Nigeria’s Bank of the Year Award” for 2022 was the most intensely contested.
That Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa largely contributes to the interest in which financial institution is adjudged the “Best Bank” for any year SocietyNow.Ng confirmed.
The award given to Zenith Bank at the Awards ceremony held in London on December 1, 2022, was in recognition of the bank’s strong management, sound business model and strategy, support for small businesses, and efforts to cut energy consumption.
The feats shepherded by the alumnus of the prestigious University of Oxford, England – Chief Executive Officer, Onyeagwu.
Zenith won the Nigeria’s Bank of The Year Award 2022 some weeks after it was ranked as the Number One Bank in Nigeria by Tier-1 Capital for the thirteenth year in the 2022 Top 1000 World Banks Ranking published by The Banker Magazine.
Zenith Bank retained its position as the number one Tier-1 bank in Nigeria with a Tier-1 Capital of $2.75 billion in 2022.
In March 2023, the helmsman said to bring job strategic thinking, inspirational leadership, energetic and entrepreneurial skills to his job got a personal recognition that tells how far he has come since he became Zenith Bank Chief Executive Officer.
“In recognition of his immense achievements as Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank as well as his contributions to the growth of the financial services sector in Nigeria and across the African continent,”Onyeagwu was conferred with a Doctorate Degree in Business Administration by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
The event took place on Saturday, March 25, 2023.
While he dedicated the doctorate to his mentor, Jim Ovia – the chairman and founder of Zenith Bank-, Onyeagwu declared that the recognition is a validation of the outstanding corporate governance, ethical leadership, and overall outstanding performance that Zenith Bank is recording.
Drawing the curtain on the list of five awards is the naming of Zenith Bank as Africa’s best in Corporate Governance Financial Services for the fourth time in a row by the Ethical Boardroom.
The Ethical Boardroom awarded the Corporate Governance Award to Zenith Bank for the fourth year after the Group Managing Director’s doctorate honour from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and published it in the Spring 2023 edition of the Ethical Boardroom magazine.
The Award which Oyeagwu declared “will motivate us to strengthen this culture internally and advocate for good governance at every forum” was in acknowledgment of the bank’s adherence to global best practices and institutionalization of corporate governance, setting an industry-wide example of best practices in that field.
With About 30years of experience in the banking world, Onyeagwu is a former Deputy Managing Director of Zenith Bank with oversight over the bank’s Financial Control and Strategic Planning, Risk Management, Retail Banking, Institutional, and Corporate banking business portfolios, IT Group, Credit Administration, Treasury, and Foreign Exchange Trading, as well as general administration of the bank, among others.
A background that has in no small measure helping him to soar the bank to greater heights.
