Sterling Bank CEO, Abubakar Suleiman, who resumed in April 2018 set out the bank’s mid-term objectives (2017 – 2021), which include to grow its market share, diversify funding base, reduce non-performing loans and increase return on average equity. These objectives are hinged on Agility, Business Specialization and Digitization of its operational model. It also adopted the HEART initiative, an acronym for Health, Education, Agriculture, Renewable Energy and Transportation, which is a huge departure from the ‘One customer bank’ mantra.
In 2019, a study ranked Sterling Bank as the third best retail banking institution in Nigeria in its 2019 Nigeria Banking Industry Customer Experience Survey. In terms of the most improved bank based on profitability growth year-on-year, the bank recorded significant profit increases with 17.2%, including FCMB and UBA with 13.2%, and 13.3% respectively.
In 2020, the bank was also ranked among the top three banks in good customer experience in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) segment. But tracking the public information of listed banks on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, all the banks recorded customer deposits growth higher than 20% in 2020 with the exemption of Jaiz Bank and Sterling Bank which grew by 7.2% and 6.5% respectively. For Return on Assets, which takes into account the bank’s usage of customer’s deposits, the best five banks are Guaranty Trust Bank: 4.6%, Stanbic IBTC Holdings: 3.8%, Zenith Bank: 3.1%, UBA: 1.7% and Jaiz Bank: 1.5%.
Evidently, the bank’s approach has created a perception that it is pushing above its weight. But how do customers feel about such an aggressive strategy, and does it encourage them to become Sterling Bank customers – which is the purpose of the risky but audacious strategy.
If Sterling Bank can truly put its money where its mouth is remains arguable. For instance, how many times for the horrible ATM services, internet transfer issues or customer services. Because most people do not take the bank seriously yet, the bank can appear fun and exciting. The conversations will become serious when it has bigger customers who are willing to jump on Twitter anytime there’s an issue.