Diamond Bank Plc., is a Nigerian multinational financial service provider.
Overview
The bank is a financial services provider from Nigeria. Headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, the bank maintains a banking subsidiary in Benin, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo and The United Kingdom. As of December 2012, the bank's total assets were valued in excess of US$7.3bn (NGN:1.7 trillion).
As at June 2013, the bank operates 240 branches in Nigeria, 20 branches in Benin Republic, 2 branches in Senegal, 1 branch in Togo and 3 branches in Côte d’Ivoire.
History
Diamond Bank Plc was incorporated in December 1990 and began operation as a Limited Liability Company with 28 staff on Thursday, March 21, 1991 from Plot 1261, Adeola Hopewell Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
In 25 years of its operations in the financial services sub-sector, the Bank has grown from one branch to 272 branches in Nigeria, 317 branches globally with over 4500 workforce, serving over 10 million customers spread across six countries. Today, Diamond Bank is one of Nigeria's leading universal banks with strong offerings in Retail, Business, Privilege, Public Sector and Corporate Banking. Its operations are driven and sustained by innovation and the deployment of the most advanced banking technology platform in the market. Â
With a total asset of N2.04 trillion and N131.4 billion in total revenue as at December 31, 2016, the Bank is ranked one of the 10 biggest banks in Nigeria’s economy. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) described Diamond Bank Plc as one of the ‘systemically important’ banks in the economy.
The Bank is in a strategic partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and in June 2012, availed it a $70 million facility. Also, Actis invested N17 billion in equity in Diamond Bank in 2007; a transaction adjudged as the largest single private equity investment made in Nigeria by foreign investors.Â
Diamond Bank Plc is the first Nigerian bank to operate in the Francophone West Africa with strong presence in the Benin, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and Togo. As at December 31, 2016, the Bank has 272 branches located in various cities and commercial centres in Nigeria.
In January 2005, following a Private Placement share offer which substantially raised the Bank's equity base, Diamond Bank became a public limited company. In May 2005, the Bank was listed on The Nigerian Stock Exchange. Moreover, in January 2008, Diamond Bank's Global Depositary Receipts (GDR) was listed on the Professional Securities Market of the London Stock Exchange. The first bank in Africa to record that feat.
Business Units
Diamond Bank is strategically focused to grow the retail segment of the market by providing a wide range of retail products and services and equally has a strong focus on corporate banking. For optimum service delivery, Diamond Bank is structured to operate in four strategic business units.
Retail Banking: This provides innovative products and solutions for the retail mass market, mass affluent customers and MSME - small and medium scale entrepreneurs.
Business Banking caters for the banking needs of the middle market customers.
Corporate Banking provides services to multinationals and large corporations in such sectors as Oil and Gas, Power, Maritime, Manufacturing, Aviation and Telecommunication.
The Public Sector is structured to provide banking services and do business with the Federal Government, its agencies and parastatals.
Charitable efforts
Diamond Bank's policy on Corporate Social Responsibility is essentially driven by the imperative to directly and positively touch the lives of its stakeholders, with special emphasis on the indigent segment of the society. That way, the resultant impact is maximized for society's most needy. In this respect, the Bank gets directly involved with the lives of this target segment rather than act through third party charities and care givers. Our CSR initiatives focuses on education and capacity building, healthcare, philanthropy and charitable activities.
They include:
Building Entrepreneurs Today Programme:Â The Building Entrepreneurs Today (BET) program is a capacity building and business education project aimed at generating interest in entrepreneurship. The project started in 2010 and focuses on rekindling interest in entrepreneurship through a robust intensive Entrepreneurial Management Training during which 15 out of 50 top bred entrepreneurs are selected for Business Development Support. Five (5) outstanding entrepreneurs who qualify for the Next Level Award are thereafter selected and given N3, 000,000.00 each to support and boost their businesses. The programme is run in partnership with the Pan-African University.
Naija Diamonds:Â Naija Diamonds is a six-part documentary series sponsored by Diamond Bank since 2010. It was created to showcase and celebrate 36 unsung heroes and world class Nigerians whose lifestyles and values serve as a standard for generations to come. Naija Diamonds celebrates Nigeria's everyday people who have done something to change and challenge positively their situations. This documentary series was produced by Inspire Africa.
Accident & Emergency Centre, Mowe:Â To mitigate the spate of deaths arising from road accidents and also to provide prompt medical intervention to the community and road users, Diamond Bank PLC constructed an Accident & Emergency Centre as well as renovated the Primary Health Care Centre at the Obafemi/Owode Local Government Area, Mowe, Ogun State. This initiative forms an integral part of the Bank's long term corporate social responsibility mission in the wake of the projections by experts that road traffic accidents will be the third leading cause of death and injury worldwide by 2020. The Bank realizes the need for concerted efforts for more effective and significant results in the reduction of this scourge.
Donation of Education Portal to the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA, Kaduna: The Bank made a donation of Education Portal to the NDA, Kaduna in response to the Academy’s quest for effective management and the automation process of their academic records, students' registration and the general school website.
Young Adult Development: Diamond is particularly interested in young people because they represent our strategic vision as an organisation. The buying power of this segment who account for more than half of the population in Nigeria, also makes this engagement a strategic imperative. Our activities in this focus area centre on equipping students of tertiary institutions in underserved states across the country with Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills. This approach will not only provide youths with practical skills that make them employable but will also serve as a source of livelihood through ICT skills development. So far, over 200 young people have benefitted from this training and plans are currently going on to replicate this ICT training model across Nigeria.
Women’s Wealth & Wellbeing (W.W.W): The link between sound health and the socio economic prosperity of an individual cannot be over emphasized. This is why our initiative under this pillar addresses these two issues simultaneously by providing basic health care support to women in rural areas and empowering women economically especially in the area of Agriculture.
Wealth:Â Women in Agriculture (WIA): According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, women make up to 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries. Research shows that on the average their yield are about 20% to 30% lower than men because they have less access to improved seeds, equipment and most importantly finance and information. This is why Diamond bank has chosen to focus on women farmers by providing technical training and financial support in the area of Agriculture. Over 200 women in Oyo and Ogun state have benefitted.
Well-being:Â Vesico Vagina Fistula (VVF) affects a significant percentage of women and forces them into isolation. According to the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), Nigeria has the highest prevalence of VVF in the world with approximately 200,000 women living with the condition in the country with 90 percent of these cases going untreated.
As part of our focus on women issues through our Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, Diamond Bank in partnership with Extended Hands Charity, a non-governmental agency with a proven track record of active involvement in VVF interventions, funded the corrective VVF surgeries of 15 women in Ilorin.
We believe that no woman should have to live a life of shame and isolation for trying to bring a child into the world and more importantly, that good health is the only foundation on which true wealth is built. Diamond bank plans to increase its supports for women living with VVF by funding the corrective surgeries of an additional 35 women in Ilorin and Sokoto in the first quarter of 2015. In addition to this, the bank has donated and will also be donating more medical equipment to Fistula centres across the country. Our aim is to increase the awareness about this debilitating medical condition and also help restore the dignity and lives of the thousands of women affected by this scourge. This two-pronged approach will not only ensure that women are able to make better informed choices concerning their health but also ensure that they have the economic power to improve their standard of living
Subsidiaries
Diamond Bank operates several subsidiary companies, based in Lagos, Nigeria, except where indicated:
- Diamond Pension Funds Custodian Limited - Victoria Island, Lagos, Lagos State
- Diamond Bank (UK) Plc - London, United Kingdom
- Diamond Bank du Benin SA - Cotonou, Benin
- Diamond Bank Togo - Togo
- Diamond Bank Senegal - Dakar, Senegal
- Diamond Bank Côte d’Ivoire - Abidjan, Ivory Coast
See also
- List of banks in Nigeria
- List of banks in Africa
- Central Bank of Nigeria
- Economy of Nigeria
References
External links
- List of Banks in Nigeria and how they are rated
- Company Profile At Google Finance