{"id":18886,"date":"2017-11-03T14:54:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T13:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/?p=18886"},"modified":"2017-11-03T14:54:02","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T13:54:02","slug":"diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/","title":{"rendered":"Diamond Bank to Sell West African Banking Operations to Focus on Nigeria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diamond Bank Plc, one of Nigeria\u2019s fastest growing retail bank has concluded plans to sell its West African banking operations in order to focus on Nigeria\u2019s significant retail banking opportunity.<\/p>\n

The bank said operations to be given up includes Benin, Togo, Cote d\u2019Ivoire and Senegal to Manzi Finances S.A., a Cote d\u2019Ivoire-based financial services holding company.<\/p>\n

According to an electronic statement made available to nationalwire<\/em> on Friday and signed by the bank\u2019s media relations officer, Ezechinyere\u00a0Anyanwu, regulatory approvals have been obtained in all jurisdictions for the transaction, which is anticipated to close before December 31, 2017.<\/p>\n

The statement read that, by focusing its resources exclusively on Nigeria, Diamond Bank is poised to capitalize on the positive macro fundamentals inherent in the Nigerian market. These include Africa\u2019s largest economy and evolving socio-economic trends driven by changing lifestyle preferences in favour of mobile delivered services, and a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the transaction, Diamond Bank\u2019s CEO Uzoma Dozie said: \u201cAfter 18 years of building the Diamond Bank franchise in other markets in West Africa, the time has come to fully apply our resources to Nigeria. This is aligned with Diamond Bank\u2019s strategic objective: to be the fastest growing and most profitable technology-driven retail banking franchise in Nigeria.<\/p>\n

We are prioritizing the Nigerian market because of its vast potential. A large segment of the population is underbanked or unbanked and the use of technology and mobile banking is rising exponentially. This provides Diamond Bank with the opportunity to reach millions of people, and facilitate financial inclusion on an exceptional scale.<\/p>

\r\n
Advertisement<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\r\n \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

In addition, Diamond Bank already has a foundation for growth in Nigeria with over 15 million customers. We also have a framework in Nigeria that will allow us to scale rapidly, efficiently and cost effectively. In part this is due to our digitally-led approach which has reduced the need to have a network of physical branches to service customers.<\/p>\n

Fundamentally this strategy stands to benefit all our key stakeholders \u2013 shareholders, customers and employees \u2013 in the immediate, medium and long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a pioneer in banking through the harnessing of technology and a digitally-led approach, Diamond Bank has already made significant strides in Nigeria in recent years.<\/p>\n

Key Diamond Bank initiatives include supporting Nigeria\u2019s future business leaders through its Building Entrepreneurs Today (BET) programme, improving financial inclusion by focusing on increasing female participation in the formal economy and the roll out of its Diamond Y\u2019ello mobile banking app, which now has over 8.6 million users.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Diamond Bank Plc, one of Nigeria\u2019s fastest growing retail bank has concluded plans to sell its West African banking operations in order to focus on Nigeria\u2019s significant retail banking opportunity. The bank said operations to be given up includes Benin, Togo, Cote d\u2019Ivoire and Senegal to Manzi Finances S.A., a Cote d\u2019Ivoire-based financial services holding …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,17],"tags":[347],"coauthors":[2391],"class_list":["post-18886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-business","category-news","tag-diamond-bank"],"yoast_head":"\nDiamond Bank to Sell West African Banking Operations to Focus on Nigeria - National Wire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Diamond Bank Plc, one of Nigeria\u2019s fastest growing retail bank has concluded plans to sell its West African banking operations in order to focus on Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Diamond Bank to Sell West African Banking Operations to Focus on Nigeria - National Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Diamond Bank Plc, one of Nigeria\u2019s fastest growing retail bank has concluded plans to sell its West African banking operations in order to focus on Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"National Wire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-11-03T13:54:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-11-03T13:54:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/images-20.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"460\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Friday Ekeoba\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/\",\"name\":\"National Wire\",\"description\":\"About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/images-20.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/images-20.jpg\",\"width\":460,\"height\":320},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/\",\"name\":\"Diamond Bank to Sell West African Banking Operations to Focus on Nigeria - National Wire\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-11-03T13:54:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-11-03T13:54:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#\/schema\/person\/e2ab303e561d755b325fc9cea3854927\"},\"description\":\"Diamond Bank Plc, one of Nigeria\u2019s fastest growing retail bank has concluded plans to sell its West African banking operations in order to focus on Nigeria\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Diamond Bank to Sell West African Banking Operations to Focus on Nigeria\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#\/schema\/person\/e2ab303e561d755b325fc9cea3854927\",\"name\":\"Friday Ekeoba\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/author\/friday\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Diamond Bank to Sell West African Banking Operations to Focus on Nigeria - National Wire","description":"Diamond Bank Plc, one of Nigeria\u2019s fastest growing retail bank has concluded plans to sell its West African banking operations in order to focus on Nigeria","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Diamond Bank to Sell West African Banking Operations to Focus on Nigeria - National Wire","og_description":"Diamond Bank Plc, one of Nigeria\u2019s fastest growing retail bank has concluded plans to sell its West African banking operations in order to focus on Nigeria","og_url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/","og_site_name":"National Wire","article_published_time":"2017-11-03T13:54:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-11-03T13:54:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":460,"height":320,"url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/images-20.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Friday Ekeoba","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#website","url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/","name":"National Wire","description":"About Nigerians, Nigerian Business and Other Stories","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/images-20.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/images-20.jpg","width":460,"height":320},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/","name":"Diamond Bank to Sell West African Banking Operations to Focus on Nigeria - National Wire","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2017-11-03T13:54:01+00:00","dateModified":"2017-11-03T13:54:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#\/schema\/person\/e2ab303e561d755b325fc9cea3854927"},"description":"Diamond Bank Plc, one of Nigeria\u2019s fastest growing retail bank has concluded plans to sell its West African banking operations in order to focus on Nigeria","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/diamond-bank-sell-west-african-banking-operations-focus-nigeria\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Diamond Bank to Sell West African Banking Operations to Focus on Nigeria"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/#\/schema\/person\/e2ab303e561d755b325fc9cea3854927","name":"Friday Ekeoba","url":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/author\/friday\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18887,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18886\/revisions\/18887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18886"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalwire.com.ng\/sub\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=18886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}