Okay. The Chairman and Founder of Zenith Bank Plc, Dr. Jim Ovia. The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dame Dr. Adaora Umeoji, OON. Members of the Board of Directors of Zenith Bank Plc, here present and online. Executive Directors of Zenith Bank Plc. Our valuable shareholders, investors, analysts, stockbrokers, capital market stakeholders. Our esteemed clients and colleagues, staff of Zenith Bank Plc. The press corps, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. You are welcome to the Zenith Capital Markets Day. We also want to take a moment to extend a warm virtual welcome to our virtual guests from around the world who are joining online and across our social media platforms. In this day of technology, it is inevitable that we will definitely have virtual sessions. It is delightful to see everybody here today.
My name is Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani, and I am the Group Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Development at Zenith Bank. Before we officially commence proceedings, I would like you to please stand so we can take the national anthem. Thank you. And it is good to see that many of us are getting used to the new national anthem and the three verses. Thank you. I must admit, I had the lyrics on the screen behind. Welcome again, ladies and gentlemen. It is my honor to anchor you through today's session. As I mentioned, my name is Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani. I am delighted to be anchoring this session as Head of Investor Relations at Zenith Bank.
If you had been watching some of the screens earlier, you would have seen some of the wonderful videos about Zenith, our products and our services, and the incredible vision and excellence that goes with the brand, which is one of Africa's largest banks. As the name suggests, the Capital Markets Day is an opportunity for investors to re-engage with the Zenith Bank story. African and global capital markets play an important role in supporting economic development, promoting financial inclusion, funding infrastructure, and supporting businesses. More importantly, they play a critical role in attracting investment to developing and emerging economies. Throughout the course of this morning into the early afternoon, you will have a chance to hear aspects of this incredible story. Before we formally start, there are just a few housekeeping rules that we need to run you through. First, of course, we start with the fire exits.
The exit doors are here by the stage, as well as to the back of the hall. We are not planning any fire drills today, so if you do hear the emergency alarm go off, please make your way to the exits and the ushers at the back will show you where to congregate. The other thing is, Zenith Bank is obviously a digitally and tech-savvy bank, so we have incorporated technology into today's proceedings. The format for Q&A will be an online format. If you would like to ask questions and engage in the discussion today, we are using Slido, and the URL will flash on your screens now. Or you can scan using your phone QR code. The event code is 1319361. Can I have the Slido details on screen so that our guests , the had with Zain Asher of CNN some years ago.
Please take a look at the screens.
I started Zenith Bank with NGN 20 million in 1990. That is about $5 million at the same rate of NGN 4 to the dollar. They're about-
Back then. Very different now.
Back then. At the same time, 20 years later, Zenith Bank shareholder funds was $4 billion. From $4 million to $4 billion. You can do the math. It will give you some thousands percentage return.
Okay, what's the secret?
And-
For the young people watching who want to know how to make it like you made it, what's the secret?
They should remain focused. They should remain determined. This kind of numbers, this kind of return, you don't get it even in God's own country, America. You don't get it in Europe. You don't get it in Russia. You can get them in Nigeria.
There must have been challenges along the way. Share that with us.
Yeah. Definitely, you will always experience adversity challenges in any business initiatives, either it is in Europe or it is in America. There has to be those. But those are the areas where many people really give up. Just don't give up in Nigeria. Don't give up. What we were doing at that point in time, we would build our own roads to our branches if we are building branches in some cities, towns where the roads are not good enough. We have also bought power plants, generating sets to power electricity into our building. When we do all this, we also even had dug bore hole to supply water to the building.
When we do all this, what I personally call it is BYOI, bring your own infrastructure. Or Build Your Own Infrastructure. So that where challenges, anyone will agree. Anyone that ever ran a business in Nigeria will know that.
On to another issue that a lot of banks in Nigeria have dealt with during the recession is that of non-performing loans. Where is Zenith Bank on that? How are you reducing non-performing loans?
All banks in the world have non-performing loans.
But specifically during the recession in Nigeria, it got quite dicey for a lot of banks.
During recession in Nigeria, just like any other economy, there will be a slowdown in repayment of those loans. Not that those loans are terribly bad or those loans are completely written off or lost. Businesses do slow down, so repayment programs also equally slow down.
Yeah, they just slow down. You schedule those loans, instead of five years, it becomes seven years or eight years. But they are not terribly bad that they are written off. They are not lost. There are different classifications of loans in banking book. I would say most loans in Nigeria may have been substandard, but not necessarily lost. As the economy beginning to improve repayment will continue to be released.
Even if they are not lost, have you at least used this time, this period of recovery, to reevaluate how you assess whether or not a borrower is likely to repay?
Oh, definitely. You will always know. You always continue to assess. You will always do that, whether there is economy recession or economic boom. You do that consistently and constantly at all times.
That is what you do.
How difficult is it for a young, budding entrepreneur to walk into Zenith Bank and get a loan?
The individual must meet what we call risk acceptance criteria. When he does meet such criteria, he will get a loan. But if he does not qualify, he does not meet, whether he is young, whether he is old, he could be 50 years old, 60 years old. If he does not meet the risk acceptance criteria, he is not going to get a loan. It is even more likely that a young 30 year old or 24 year old that had made the risk acceptance criteria in terms of, one, the viability of the project. The project must be viable.
And two, in terms of the return on the project. Finally, in terms of the character. Character is a major reason why we lend or do not. The character of the individual, which means in terms of KYC, you have to know who the individual is. More importantly, the viability of the project, viability of the loan, as well as the return on assets. That also is what is critical for us.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I am sure you will agree that was a masterclass, a speedy masterclass in corporate credit. Thank you to our Chairman for the wonderful vision, for the incredible story, for the incredible journey. We are very grateful for this amazing institution. Another round of applause, please. Of course, there is much more to this story of Zenith Bank and the African opportunity. So I actually highly recommend "Africa Rise and Shine: How a Nigerian Entrepreneur from Humble Beginnings Grew a Business to $16 Billion." It was published in 2008. If you have not read it is actually a really, really great read, especially for budding entrepreneurs. Now, we move on. Here is a moment we have all been waiting for, the keynote presentation.
It gives me great pleasure to introduce an incredible icon of our time, an Amazon, a leader par excellence, one who herself is a symbol of Zenith Bank's incredible, stable internal leadership succession. Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to deliver, invited to deliver the keynote, the first female Group Managing Director and CEO of Zenith Bank Plc, Dr. Dame Adaora Umeoji OON. Please give her a warm welcome as she comes on stage.
Please can we be seated. Distinguished capital market stakeholders, investors, and analysts here present, our visionary Chairman and Founder, Dr. Jim Ovia CFR, Board of Directors of Zenith Bank Plc, esteemed customers here present, my dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.
Good morning.
I am delighted and humbled to lead Nigeria's largest bank by Tier 1 capital, Africa's third largest bank, and 467th biggest bank globally. This is the only Nigerian bank that is in the top 500 global banks, according to The Banker Magazine. It is therefore not a surprise that we are one of Africa's most respected and valuable banking brands. In the recent CBN pronouncement by the Central Bank of Nigeria for recapitalization of banks, this has really necessitated this capital markets event that we are having today. Today, we shall be engaging our investor community, capital market stakeholders, and customers on designing bank equity stories. In the course of this program today, we shall highlight our bank's market position across key product offerings, our service delivery track record, financial performance, and strategic growth objectives. Let's quickly look at Nigerian macroeconomic overview so far.
Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with over 220 million people. This accounts for 20% of African population, out of which 60% are under the age of 25. This shows a huge workforce with great potential of economic growth. Over 37% of adults are unbanked. This shows that there is a great need for financial inclusion in Nigeria. Nigeria's GDP grew from 2.32% to 2.98% year-on-year in quarter one of 2023 as against this same period in 2024. The positive growth trajectory signifies a gradual recovery in economic activities in Nigeria. The Federal Government of Nigeria has an ongoing reform, and the President recently announced that they are targeting at taking Nigeria to a $1 trillion economy by the year 2030 while ensuring sustainable economic development.
Recent initiatives to achieve this include exchange rate unification aimed at increasing FX inflows in the country, attracting foreign direct investments, and other remittances. At this stage, we can say that the market recovery is very stable and the exchange rate is getting more stable day by day. This interest rate regime is moving towards acceptable level as efforts to rein in inflation is being intensified. Fiscal reforms around revenue growth and intervention will contribute to a more stable macroeconomic environment. Foreign reserves are currently stable and showing signs of growth. Let's quickly look at the growth trajectory of Zenith Bank and the prospects ahead. Since inception in May 1990, Zenith Bank has grown to become one of the leading and most respected financial institutions in Africa. The bank has a 10-year record of being Nigeria's largest bank.
As at December 2023, Zenith Bank recorded a Tier 1 capital of NGN 1.8 trillion, highest in banking industry and the top 10 in Africa. Our shareholders' fund remain at NGN 2.3 trillion, the highest in the industry as well. Our market capitalization is at NGN 1.3 trillion and the highest in banking sector as well. Our profit after tax is NGN 769 billion and is the most profitable bank in Nigeria. Our shareholders can attest to the fact that we paid dividend of NGN 4 per share, being the highest paid dividend in Nigerian banking institutions. We presently have a customer base of 33 million, which represent a 560% growth from the 5 million customer base we had five years ago. Ladies and gentlemen, you can agree with me that Zenith Bank is truly at the zenith of financial industry in Africa.
It's worthy to note that all our subsidiaries are recording profit and making positive contribution to shareholders. This has encouraged us to explore more footprints in Europe and African countries. Our solid management team. Our unique corporate culture is to lead and take a long tenured, highly experienced board and management team within the system. Our executive management has cumulative experience of over 150 years, and each of the executive directors. The management team has over 150 years experience, and each of the executive directors has an average of 20 years in the system. This foundation has ensured that we have consecutive smooth CEO transition, all from within the system. Zenith Bank is a gender-inclusive institution. Zenith Bank has 31% female representation in the board and top management.
With my humble self at the forefront of the banking operations. In recognition of our strong corporate culture and superior performance, Zenith has won numerous awards over the years. The most recent one is Best Corporate Bank and Best Commercial Bank in Nigeria 2024 by the World Finance. We have in place a very robust risk management culture and have navigated challenges in different macroeconomic environments over the years. We deploy strong tools and invest in human capital to continuously monitor and manage our risk. We also operate within the Prudential regulatory limits and our capital adequacy ratio, liquidity, and non-performing loan ratios are always within the stipulated regulatory threshold. Our strategic growth so far, we plan to actually grow by financial inclusion, corporate client strategy expansion with a continuous focus on our retail expansion drive. We intend to drive our retail with the state-of-the-art digital technology platforms.
We have also established a fintech subsidiary called ZenPay, and we are going to use that to drive more profitability to the bottom line. We have branches in the U.K., Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and rep office in UAE and China. Recently, we got a license for operation in the Paris region. The bank is looking at expanding into Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and exploring other African countries and beyond. As our Chairman and Founder, Dr. Jim Ovia, CFR, rightly mentioned in his book, "Africa Rise and Shine," Africa is a continent of abundant human and natural resources, immense and diverse opportunity, and an economy primed for leapfrogging strategies. Zenith Bank, we are determined to take advantage of these opportunities in all the African countries and beyond.
In conclusion, I would like to reiterate the fact that Zenith Bank is a trailblazing financial institution, has a solid corporate governance culture, maintains a deliberate focus on customer service delivery, and it is an innovative institution with robust technological infrastructure. Zenith Bank remains a strong and formidable brand globally. We have the highest market capitalization, highest in Tier 1 capital, highest in profitability, highest customer retention, highest dividend payout over the years. I can attest by our shareholders here. Very strong return earnings, an impressive return on equity of 36%. Zenith Bank is, and we continue to be, the biggest, the most profitable, the best financial institution in Nigeria and beyond. Ladies and gentlemen, invest in Zenith Bank, invest in value, invest in Zenith. Thank you very much.
I think that deserves an even louder and rapturous round of applause. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, you heard from our first female GMD and CEO, the incredible Dame Dr. Adaora Umeoji, OON. Such great, profound, and powerful opening remarks. You may please be seated. I think you're a bit overwhelmed and excited. You may please take your seats. Such great, powerful remarks there by our Group MD and CEO. NGN 4 per share. That was the dividend we paid in 2023, NGN 796 billion in profit before tax, ROE of 36.6%. I'm sure you'll agree with me that that is a formidable equity story. Indeed. Another round of applause for her, please. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, they say teamwork makes the dream work.
Our Group MD is ably supported in this task by distinguished members of the ExCo, who she mentioned in her presentation have a cumulative 150+ years, and between them, an average of 20 years. That's incredible. That speaks of resilience, that speaks of commitment. It speaks of dedication, loyalty, and longevity. I would say it speaks of staying power. It's a formidable team indeed. The next set of presentations on how Zenith Bank delivers quality service to customers and value to shareholders will be delivered by some members of the dream team. You'll get to meet all of them later in the program. To kick us off on the bank's technology strategy, as well as its trade and treasury business, is a man of timber and caliber who was once Managing Director of Zenith Bank Ghana and is currently the ED for our subsidiary businesses.
He is a distinguished chartered accountant who joined the bank in 1999. Some of us were still in school then. It is none other than Dr. Henry Oroh Executive Director, Zenith Bank Plc. Please give him a warm welcome.
That was a riotous applause. I thought that applause and more should be going to our inspirational Chairman and Founder, Dr. Jim Ovia, who has given us the platform. Our inspirational Chairman and Founder, Dr. Jim Ovia, distinguished capital market operators, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, a very warm good morning to you all.
Good morning.
Please permit me to stand on the protocol already well established by our Group MD CEO, our adorable, amiable Group MD CEO. Thank you. She has also clearly and articulately presented our roadmap for growth in Zenith Bank. My job this morning is pretty simple, very, very simple, just to elaborate around our digital journey, our IT transformation plan, and how we are driving our treasury products, our trade products, to create value for our shareholders. That is pretty simple, isn't it?
Yes.
Thank you. People, technology, and service has been the foundational points that have driven our business in the last over three decades. We remain so. We are currently transforming our digital infrastructure, our IT infrastructure. We are trying to build a bank that is a modern bank, a digital bank, providing world-class banking services. This change in our IT architecture is evolving the entire platform. The entire core banking is being transformed, the entire lending platform is being transformed, the entire trade platform is being transformed, and the entire treasury platform is being transformed. This transformation will provide benefit to our customers, will provide benefit to our shareholders, and will improve the speed of processing customer data and responding to customer inquiries. I thought that's a good thing, and it's something I'm very excited about today, and I'm sure you will be.
This journey is also involving an upgrade in our entire data center. We are upgrading our data center to a Tier 3 uptime certification standard. What does that mean? It means 24/7 our channels will be open to connect to our customers. 24/7, there will be uninterrupted service. 24/7, our bank will be open to you wherever you are. I dare tell you, there are no more than one or two banks that have that level of certification. That is also a beautiful story, and that is a story I'm very proud of, and that is a story I expect you to be very proud of. Thank you very much. What that also does for us is to provide us a higher automation capability. It will give us an enablement to use AI to drive our business.
Talking about cloud computing, we'll be doing more of that. Again, that is for the benefit of the customer, and that is for the benefit of all stakeholders. Like I said, the speed of processing of our data will be faster and better. Customer experience and user experience will be faster and better. Zenith Bank has become not just a bank, but a modern digital bank that is powered by the best IT infrastructure to drive growth into the next long future. Again, that is a very good thing. That is something I'm very proud and excited to be part of, and I guess you'll be proud of that also. Thank you. What does it mean to you as a customer, as a stakeholder?
It means for us as a bank, and especially for the investors, this technology, this improved platform, will create the ability to enhance our customer acquisition. Our customer retention will also be improved. Above all, we will generate customer enthusiasm given the level of automation we are building. There's also going to be an increase in adoption of various retail and digital channels, and revenues accruing from this, especially non-interest revenue. For a bank to do well, you need to grow your non-interest revenue. Interest income is given our balance sheet. But today, our non-interest revenue is beginning to compete even more with our interest revenues. That, again, is a very good thing. That is more value for stakeholders, and that is more value to any investor in Zenith Bank.
Our robust technology will provide better integration and better collaboration with our strategic partners and the large fintechs, and also assure improvement in our payments and collection platform. Banking is about receiving and paying. We will provide a seamless platform where the payment platform is uninterrupted, efficient. Our collection platform is wide and deep. I think that is a very good thing as a bank. That is something that is very good, that will bring value to shareholders, and that is something I believe our customers will be very proud of. If you are proud of that, let me hear you. Thank you. Now, trade, we all know, is a big thing in our country. Today, Zenith Bank controls over 40%, and I say that again, Zenith Bank Nigeria controls over 40% of non-oil export repatriation into this country.
Likewise, Zenith Bank controls over 25% of all import activities in the country of over 20 banks. I think that again is a very good thing. How are we able to do that? We leverage on the synergies between Nigeria and our various subsidiaries, and we leverage on that to consolidate our leadership in export and in trade and other cross-border operations. I dare say that beyond Nigeria, where we have over 400 branches, we are very strong in Ghana as a leading bank. We are strong in Gambia, we are strong in Sierra Leone, and we are using this platform to promote inter-African trade. Beyond Africa, we are also very strong in the U.K., and the U.K. also provide us, the Zenith Bank, a corresponding bank leadership with all our customers that operate out of Europe and other parts of the continent.
Establishment of LCs, advisory services, et cetera. We are able to get all that done through our various subsidiaries. I think that is a good thing, it is something I am excited about, and it is something I expect every shareholder and every customer to be excited about. Beyond Zenith U.K., we are in China, in Beijing, where we provide trade corresponding banking services to our customers in that region. We are in the UAE, and I dare say we are establishing our footprint more and more in Africa. We are looking at many, many more countries in Africa and around the world where we follow the money, follow our customers, and establish our presence to consolidate our leadership in our markets. Ladies and gentlemen, with respect to treasury, and treasury is something that is also a big thing.
I dare say we have some of the best treasurers, and a lot of them are in the house today. Some of the best treasurers in the market in Nigeria. That provides us a very diversified funding base. They are able to source funds, whether in dollar or in naira, from various sources and at very low cost. We are also able to use our retail platform to source funding, especially in the naira currency, across the market, and at what? A very, very low cost. Treasurers will know that is a competitive advantage. It is an edge every bank needs. It is an edge we have, and it is an edge we will continue to dominate.
We also have very good outlets. Apart from the risk assets, given our very robust treasury, we are able also to invest in high liquid, high-quality liquid assets, and again with very high yields.
Very, very high yields. That again, brings value to every investor and to every shareholder here. Our strong liquidity, the regulatory requirement is 30%, but I dare tell you that our liquidity today ratio is north of 45%. North of 45%. There are times in the very recent past where our liquidity ratio has gone north of 60%. Is it a good thing? It is a good thing. Is that a good thing? It is a good thing. Let me hear you say it is a good thing.
It is a good thing.
It is something I am very proud of, and it is something I believe every shareholder here, we are very proud of. Our strong liquidity ratio, our compliant cash reserve ratios, our compliant capital adequacy ratios, our very low non-performing loan ratio, that is also very critical. Very, very critical.
Our Chairman alluded to it, that our risk management is robust when we listen to the clips. Our NPL is about 4%, and that is about one of the lowest in the market in spite of the size of our balance sheet. Is that a good thing? It is a good thing . It is something I am very proud of, and it is something I am very excited about, and it is something I believe every friend of Zenith Bank in the house should be very excited about. Ladies and gentlemen, what do these numbers do? They provide us a platform to increase value exponentially to shareholders, to investors. Exponentially. That has been our history. If you look at our history, you can tell where we are going to. We are promising our investors and our customers an exponential growth in value.
I have been in the House for over 25 years, and I know where I am standing on. I know what I am standing on. Under the leadership of our inspirational Chairman, under the leadership of our adorable Group MD CEO, Dr. Umeoji. She said over 150 years of executive experience, tell me where I should get that. It is not available in this market. All this put together, it is with boldness and assurance that a man puts his five fingers on his chest to make a commitment. We do make a commitment that for you stakeholders and investors of Zenith Bank, we will provide you exponential growth in your founder value.
It is not just something we can see. It is something we can feel. It is something we can touch. This is not just a promise, this is reality. Ladies and gentlemen, invest in value, invest in Zenith Bank. Thank you very much.
Another round of applause for Executive Director Henry Oroh. It is indeed a good thing. Wouldn't you agree? Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, there you heard it from a member of the dream team, as I like to call them. Technology obviously has been an engine that keeps Zenith Bank moving, and in fact, in 2023, Zenith won the best bank for digital solutions from Euromoney. I think that deserves a round of applause. I am sure many of you would have seen the state-of-the-art digital screen that now sits grandly and boldly at the Ajose Adeogun roundabout or the Zenith roundabout because we like to own our space. It stands as a beacon of digital transformation. Of course, those of you who have had the opportunity to interact with ZiVA, I do not know if anybody in here knows what ZiVA stands for. ZiVA, she is the chatbot, the lady.
I guess we are using artificial intelligence to drive customer engagement and create more value. Moving on swiftly with a tradition that is rooted in corporate banking business, which has also seen us diversify into the retail space. I would like to invite our next presenter, who incidentally was also a former MD of Zenith Bank Ghana. There must be something in the Ghana water and is also currently a member of the board of directors of the Africa Finance Corporation. He joined the bank in 2004. Please welcome to the podium to highlight our retail SME banking and corporate banking track record, the smooth, the incredible Mr. Akin Ogunranti, Executive Director, Zenith Bank. A warm welcome for him as he comes on stage. Thank you, sir.
Good morning. Good morning, House.
Good morning.
Good morning, our Founder and Chairman. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, capital market operators, may I just crave your indulgence to stand on all the existing protocols already established by my Group Managing Director. Thank you for that. Let me start by thanking you all for honoring our invitation to the Capital Markets Day of Zenith Bank. We do not take it for granted. We appreciate all of you that have made time out to come in here today and all those who are also watching us virtually. It is an attestation to the fact that you have always supported us, and you believe in our brand, and we want to say a big thank you for that.
My Group Managing Director, CEO, Dr. Adaora Umeoji, has already shared with us our journey so far as a bank and also given the roadmap for the journey ahead. For us, that clearly demonstrates the kind of pedigree that we have as a bank. Closely followed by her was a presentation by my colleague, Henry Oroh, who also has given you an insight into the foundation that we are building for the next journey, to take us to the next level. That is why you see the investment that has gone into technology, which has always been the foundation of our bank. When our Founder and Chairman, Dr. Jim Ovia CFR, founded this bank, he built the bank on a tripod stand, and that is people, technology, and service. Our people are the best in class. Our people are the best in this country in terms of the banking industry.
All of us have experienced them in one way or the other, either as relationship managers or even during the period when we had to sell our first public offer. For us as a team, we have been a formidable team, and we have the best. In fact, I always say that we have the best sales force in the entire country. I mean, anywhere Zenith Bank staff knocks on the door, you can be sure that that account is going to come into the bank. Consistently, we have continued to grow the business of the bank. We have continued to create value for our customers as well as our stakeholders. In terms of technology, I also recall very vividly when I joined the bank way back in 2004, and that is 20 years ago.
After my first year of being in Zenith Bank, I had to go and meet our CIO at that time, who was our head of IT. I said, "Look, I've been in this bank for a whole year, not for one day did the system go down. How do you do this? Is this possible?" Because prior to then, I'd been to two other places, and I know what the challenges were around the industry at that time. That attests to the vision of our founder, who foresaw then that technology was going to be the bedrock of running the banking industry and the financial services. Today, what do we see? That's exactly what is disrupting the market through the fintechs. That's exactly what all of us are having to use to deliver the services.
Ladies and gentlemen, the vision of our chairman and the support that all subsequent leadership teams of this bank has provided has brought us this far. Given the credentials that we have displayed in terms of our scorecard, it is clear to me that the future, being very unblemished, provides a lot of opportunities for even greater growth for us as a bank and, of course, to our shareholders who would continue to receive better value for their investments in our bank. I'll go quickly to my task for today, which is a very simple one. It's essentially to talk about this business that we do and which we know how to do well, and which we have excelled at over and over consistently and has resulted in the kind of value that we have continued to deliver to our stakeholders, shareholders.
Also that our prospective investors would get the opportunity of beginning to benefit from. Traditionally, Zenith Bank has been known to be a corporate bank. In the last 34 years, 28 of those years, we actually were basically focused on the corporate segment of the market. We became an undisputable leader of that segment. That also catapulted us to the zenith of the banking industry. About five, six years ago, we saw the changing landscape, and that also attests to how adaptable Zenith Bank is as an institution. We are an institution that I love to call a very ambidextrous institution. What do I mean by that?
We are an institution that makes sure that we continue to keep, nurture, expand, and consolidate on the business that we have always done, which is the corporate business, and also make forays into new areas and still excel at doing that as well. Six years ago, when we moved into the retail sector, nobody gave us a chance. Everybody always thought that we couldn't do it. Zenith is a corporate bank. They don't know anything about retail. In five years, I stand here to attest to what we have been able to accomplish as a bank. In terms of the customer acquisition, you heard my GMD say 5 million accounts in 2018, and today we are 33 million accounts. That's 33% compound annual growth rate in terms of performance. I think that deserves a round of applause.
The number of cards issued in the industry is north of 35 million, and that's also a 32% growth year- on- year in terms of performance. In terms of our POS terminals, we have also achieved a 59% compound annual growth rate. I think that deserves a round of applause. We, as a bank, see tremendous opportunity in this area. Why do I say so? With a population of 220 million plus and 37% unbanked individuals in the country, what does that tell us? It tells us that the opportunities are still pretty enormous. That 37% is almost 90 million people that are unbanked in this country. That clearly tells us that there are opportunities still in the retail market.
In those that also have banking services or financial services, we also have the opportunity to provide our innovative products to be able to attract them to the bank. The retail banking franchise has earned us 46% of our low-cost deposits as a bank. That's in five years. I think that also deserves a round of applause. Today, it might interest you to note that though we still are the leader in the corporate segment of the market, today, our retail business contributes about 42% to our total revenues. That is an outstanding performance.
In five, six years, if Zenith Bank is able to achieve this, you can imagine what we will be able to do with the kind of solid technology foundation that we just spoke about, with the kind of vision that we have for the future as enunciated by our Group Managing Director, and with the kind of products that we have also turned out as a bank. We have our digital products, which we are using to essentially provide value to all our customers. We have our QR code, we have our agency banking. We have over 100,000 agency network across the country. This is to enable us reach out to those unbanked population that we do know are also supposed to be part of our journey.
This essentially takes into consideration also the financial inclusion policies of the Central Bank, and it also underscores and supports the growth of the industry. We also have, in addition to the retail business, our SME banking. In the area of SME banking, we have broken it down into three major areas: small enterprises, medium enterprises, and micro enterprises. In this sector, all of us will agree, and I am sure you have all heard it, that the engine room of every economy is the SME. Even though we have always been known to be a corporate bank or corporate-focused bank, having moved into the retail segment, we have also now gone further to look at the SME business area, and we have started becoming a leader in that segment as well. What do we do for our SMEs? We help them to access new customers and markets.
We provide tools and services to support their management and operations. We also provide capacity building for a lot of them because we do know that one of the challenges that they all have, it is financial management and also technical competence. We do this in collaboration with SMEDAN and Google. We also engage them in the adoption of the usage of digital platforms. In addition to that, we provide funding services to them. Ladies and gentlemen, we have used this to create a lot of value. In our corporate segment of the market, we still remain the leader. We continue to do what we know how to do best. Not only that, we continue to control the major market share of the industry. My colleague did mention that we control 25% of the trade transactions in terms of imports and 40% in terms of exports.
That, for me, clearly shows value that we are delivering as an institution. For me, clearly, this trajectory, as we continue with our journey, guarantees our shareholders and major stakeholders continuous shareholder value. At this point, given what we have been able to do with respect to this, our foray into digital products and digital banking, the ZenPay that we are building and all other things put together, I have no doubt in my mind, and I would like to recommend that you hedge your bets with Zenith Bank, and I invite you all to invest in value and to invest in Zenith. Thank you very much.
Another round of applause, please, for Mr. Akin Ogunranti for that exposé on our retail banking, SME banking, and corporate banking business. Indeed, big business matters to Zenith, but so do small and emerging entrepreneurs. Ladies and gentlemen, please be reminded that you can pose questions to the Slido platform by scanning the QR code on the side of the screens and entering the event code 1319361. Thank you. Our people, our staff, our customers, our community matter very much here at Zenith Bank. It is fair to say that without our people and without our customers, there would be no Zenith Bank. To lead us in the last of the ExCo presentations is Dr. Adobi Nwapa . She is going to be talking about Zenith’s leadership in ESG and service excellence. Dr. Nwapa is a formidable, resilient, committed, passionate, and inspirational woman.
In fact, Dr. Adobi has been in the bank for as long as the bank has been. 34 years. July 1990 was when she joined the bank. I think that deserves a very loud and warm round of applause. She is a day one. Please welcome her to the stage to deliver her presentation, Executive Director, Dr. Adobi Nwapa . Thank you.
Good morning, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. Good morning, our Chairman and Founder, Dr. Jim Ovia, CFR. Good morning, my dear colleagues. Good morning, corporate market operators. I welcome you all to this auspicious Capital Market Day. Thank you very much for coming. Well, they have introduced me. I heard some people call me Global Matron. I think the name is well-earned. Let me just inform you that I have been as old as Zenith with the Chairman and Founder, and I am proud of that.
Thank you very much. Whilst we have also sought to deliver value to our shareholders in terms of our superior performance, we believe that financial success has to occur alongside success on environment, social, and governance metrics. Today, I will take you through my slides on ESG. First of all, Zenith Bank is an environmentally friendly brand and a leader in ESG. I think we should clap.
We actually embarked on this journey 15 years ago, and since then, sustainability has become an integral part of the bank's corporate identity, significantly shaping the business model and strategy. The bank's yearly sustainability report enables us to achieve the following. You can see from the slides. Firstly, it has enabled us to prioritize sustainability at the highest level of business with target-crossing KPIs. Sustainability is an integral part of our corporate identity, and it is at the heart of our business. We evaluate our corporate success against key sustainability metrics and remain committed to upholding the highest sustainability standards in the industry. Such standards include workforce gender diversity and balance, with a workforce of 50/50 female to male employee ratio and 31% female representation on the board. Like our GMD CEO said, she is leading the pack, and I am following.
We also have increased social and developmental investments in 2023. Our total donations dedicated to supporting community and social investments rose to NGN 5.67 billion, representing a 239.5% increase from the NGN 1.67 billion donated in 2022. We did very well as a bank. As a bank, we consider ESG aspects of our internal and external business operations. For instance, the bank's ESG compliance has enabled us to attract partnerships with international financial institutions and DFIs. We also align with key global frameworks and guidance to advance sustainability. Zenith Bank adheres to global sustainability principles and standards to ensure that our corporate actions are aligned with international best practices. We engage with stakeholders extensively for shared value creation and disclose our performance. In Zenith Bank, we have a strong commitment to sustainability, prioritizing ethical business practices, community engagement, and environmental sustainability.
We sponsor and partner with many projects aimed at improving the community at large. I will give you some of the examples. They include the Z-Woman and SME initiative. This includes bespoke offerings, access to loans, and sector-based training. A standard product specifically designed for the needs of SMEs is the SME Grow My Business and the Z-Woman initiative. This Z-Woman initiative is directed at women business owners. You must have controlling shares for you to access this loan. We supported SMEs with an estimated value of NGN 4.1 billion in loans and supported the women-led business with an estimated NGN 30 billion. That is in the Z-Woman loan. Let us clap for that, please.
There is an initiative where we called Pad-a-Queen. This talks about menstrual hygiene management, and this is a critical aspect of women's health and well-being. Over 700 school girls were reached, and over 1,000 sanitary pads were distributed.
Clap for Zenith Bank. In terms of financial literacy drive, 120,000 students participated in the quarterly Zenith financial literacy training in secondary schools in 2023. 165 students from across the six geopolitical zones nationwide were selected for the Zenith Bank scholarship reward. A total of NGN 8.1 million was disbursed to the selected scholarship beneficiaries. We also have an initiative called the Zenith Bank Tech Fair. We have done this three consecutive times, and we have showcased leading technology innovations that cut across different aspects of life. At Zenith Bank, we take positive steps towards environmental management. We are working to reduce our direct carbon footprint and environmental impact by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, using cleaner energy and renewables, using water responsibly, and reducing the amount of waste that we generate. 79,488 kilowatt per hour of emissions were avoided by Zenith Bank through the use of solar energy in 2023.
In Zenith Bank, just like my GMD also mentioned, we are recipients of various awards over the years as a testament to exceptional ESG practices. Some of these awards include, as can be seen on the slide, we ranked number one as Nigeria Bank in ESG by Independent Project Monitoring Company 2024, Most Sustainable Bank Nigeria 2024 by The International Banker. Best Corporate Governance Nigeria 2022, 2023, and 2024, World Finance, amongst others. Now let me talk about customer service. I started 34 years ago, and I was the first customer service officer of Zenith Bank. So for me and for all the staff in this room, customer service is in our DNA. So customer service in Zenith Bank, it is our bedrock. We distinguish ourselves with excellent customer service, which is one of the bank's competitive advantages amongst our peers. We offer 24/7 customer service.
We operate around the clock. Customer service is offered through various channels, accessible both physically and virtually. Ladies and gentlemen, when you are sleeping, Zenith Bank is working for you. We maintain seamless and consistent service across all branches, both online and offline. We also provide continual staff training to our dedicated staff to enhance problem-solving skills and ensure quality service delivery. We ensure excellent turnaround time when implementing customer suggestions to enhance services and offer personalized services and products to cater to individual customer preferences. So our unique value proposition includes sustaining a high customer retention rate and customer loyalty by constantly upscaling the level of the services that we offer. We leverage on our high-value networking opportunities to deepen our existing relationships. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, just like my other colleagues have said, I would like to urge you to invest in value and to invest in Zenith.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Dr. Adobi Nwapa . A round of applause for her. 34 years is not beans, as we say. Thank you. It was Theodore Roosevelt that said, "People don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care," which is why that Zenith Bank slogan has people first before technology and service. Thank you again, ma'am. That was an awesome presentation. Thank you. A key hallmark of our equity story is our financial performance and growth plan. They say numbers don't lie. In fact, beyond that, numbers tell a story. To help us complete this remarkable story today is our Chief Financial Officer, Dr. Mukhtar Adam, PhD. I call him personally everybody's best friend because he holds the purse. For Dr. Mukhtar Adam, time is money.
If you find Mukhtar in a meeting too long, you know there's something wrong because he's always on the move. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the man who holds the purse, the cerebral and ever-pragmatic Dr. Mukhtar Adam, to deliver his presentation on our financial performance and growth plan.
A very good morning to our dear Founder and Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, please permit me to stand on the existing protocol that has been earlier established by the previous presenters. Thank you. We are now going to talk about the money Capital Market Day, we are trying to tell you why Zenith Bank is a safe haven, is a good investment destination, is a very good product, very good brand. But how do we measure the goodness? It has to come to the naira and kobo, as we say it. But before we do that, let's also go back to the experience that we all have had with Zenith Bank's equity. In the Nigerian banking sector, maybe in the last 20 years, we have gone through three significant developments.
The first one was the banking sector consolidation exercise that was done at that time around 2006, that increased the minimum capital requirement for banks. We had about 83 banks. The minimum capital requirement was increased significantly. That reduced the number of banks. Within that process, Zenith Bank existed as Zenith Bank. After the process, Zenith Bank remained Zenith Bank. Zenith Bank kept to its corporate identity. The people behind Zenith Bank remained the people behind Zenith Bank. Our logo did not change. Our color did not change. Our strategy did not change. We kept our identity. After the consolidation, Nigerian banks had a lot of money, a lot. Maybe the sector was over-capitalized. The Central Bank allowed banks to hold universal banking license. Banks started setting up subsidiaries, insurance, pension, asset management, these properties, realtors, everything.
Within the process, some of the players got confused. Some of them metamorphosed from banks to something else. But Zenith Bank remained Zenith Bank. We kept our identity. We were very intact. Then came the next bigger phase, which was the financial sector crisis that we faced in 2008, that started from the U.S. subprime mortgage loans, got into Africa, and finally landed on us in Nigeria. That was when the capital market crashed. We remember the margin loan issues and all those things. During that time, the Central Bank did stress test of the sector, of the industry. We know what happened in the ICU. We know what happened in the mortuaries. We know what happened in the burial ground. But we survived, we succeeded, we grew bigger, we kept our identity. Again, within that time, nothing changed.
Our logo remained, our color remained, our leadership remained. Our strategy became better. Today, we also heard the Central Bank said the banking sector should recapitalize, and the sector is going through recapitalization. From these two significant events that I've explained to you, and from your experience of Zenith Bank within this period, now that the banking sector is going through recapitalization, what do we expect? We are going to remain the same but stronger.
Yes.
Our identity is going to remain the same but stronger.
Yes.
That is the entire equity story that we have. I just took time to say, rather than talking about the numbers, I want people to reflect on the experience that they have.
Of course, for you to remain during all these financial events and crisis means you have a very solid financial footings and background, and you are a very disciplined organization. Just let me take us through some few historical performance track record of Zenith Bank, after taking us through these few historical events. In the last five years, I want to reduce it to just five years. In the last five years, compounded annual growth rate of Zenith Bank in terms of the revenue that we make has grown by over 27%. Year- on- year, year- on- year, we continue to grow. Within this period, at some point, Nigeria has gone into recession. But we forged ahead. We forged ahead and worked very hard and continue to show growth. Within the period, in the last five years, our profit, our PBT, has grown cumulatively, compoundedly by about 28%.
This is a market that at some point, government instruments, treasury bills, were paying 1%, 2%, 3%, we know. We forged ahead to grow the numbers to give you stable returns of at least 28% PBT. Our return on equity, the return that we put, we give equity holders, had 24% compounded annual growth over the last five years. The industry average is about 18%, so we have always operated above industry average. This solid financial performance is not only interesting to our shareholders. Our customers have also been watching, and everybody realized that Zenith Bank is a destination, is the safest place to have your deposits. So within that period, our deposits have grown by over 36% in the last five years.
Again, big corporates that want very strong financial institution that will support them have also realized that when you come to Zenith, you get your transaction done, you are able to get very good structured facilities. Our loan book grew by 24% within that period. Back to our shareholders. Within that period, we grew your fund, the shareholders' fund of the bank grew by over 23% within five years. That is a very short historical performance of the bank. If I move to the next slide, we are going to look at the present. Where are we? What is our standing as a bank, financial standing today? Between 2022 and 2023 financial year, we have grown our return on equity by 117%. The return on equity. Return on asset, we have grown it by 95% within one year.
Despite we all know the inflationary pressure that we face as a country, cost of doing business has gone high. Our management has always been very disciplined and very prudent. We have reined in on our costs by adopting different cost management strategies, by using technology as much as we can, and by being very efficient. So our cost-to-income ratio has reduced by 33% between 2022 and 2023. The earnings, the profit, the return, the money that we make for every unit of shares that you hold in Zenith Bank, that is what we call earnings per share. Between 2022 and 2023 has grown by 300%. All this, the shareholders will ask, "How does it come to my pocket?" We have consistently paid higher dividend. In the last five years, in 2019, we paid dividend of 2019. 2019, sorry.
We paid dividend of NGN 2.80. 2020, we paid dividend of NGN 3. 2021, we paid dividend of NGN 3.10. 2022, we paid dividend of NGN 3.20. In 2023, we paid dividend of NGN 4. So now that our profit is also growing, our distinguished shareholders, you can easily project what is going to happen to your dividend. It is definitely going to grow. We are not just creating the value in the book so that the CFO will keep the value in the book. No. We send the value back to you by way of dividend, and you also see the value by way of share appreciation of the shares that you hold in Zenith Bank.
For us to achieve all this, we have been able to do that by, let me go to our next slide, by looking at the diversification of our revenue. Our revenue is diversified. We have tried to grow the pie, go into retail and make some revenues there. We do export business. Our subsidiaries are contributing to the profit. Today, our non-interest income is growing and growing faster than our interest income. That line of income gives us stability in our revenue trend, so we do not face volatility. We do not want to come back to you with excuse of why we have made profit, but we cannot pay dividend. We want to make good profit in a way that we can use that profit to pay dividend. When we go to the next slide, you know that banking business is a business of giving loan.
Giving loan in a very disciplined way, that is what makes a successful bank. When we were watching the video of our Chairman, Jim Ovia, he took time to explain the discipline required to give loans in a way that the loans will do very well and the organization or the bank will succeed. Our loan book is very diversified, such that we do not have over-concentration in a way that when one customer or one sector has challenges, the whole institution will struggle. We diversify the loan book. What that gives us is opportunity, space to grow the loan book in each of the sectors as we see opportunities coming in the country. We will continue to do that to continue to deliver superior performance to our shareholders. If we move to the next slide, you will see the funding.
The funding structure of Zenith Bank is really very interesting, and I challenge you to check it with the funding structure of other banks. We get most of our funding from our strong capital base. Our capital base is very strong. The most capitalized bank in terms of Tier 1 capital in Nigeria. In the whole of Africa we are within the top 10 most capitalized banks in Africa. Globally, the whole world, if you look at all the banks in the world in terms of capital, we are within the top 500 banks in the world. We have very solid capital. Our capital is largely Tier 1, which means we do not have a lot of debt in the capital structure. Whatever returns we are able to make, our profit, we can distribute significant part of that profit to our shareholders.
That is why that capital structure is really important for you, the shareholders. If you look at our. We also are very liquid. Liquidity is the lifeblood, lifeline of every bank. All those period of challenges that I explained to you earlier within the sector, what makes you live, what makes you survive is liquidity, and our liquidity is always top-notch. We always operate above the minimum liquidity ratio requirements. Aside liquidity, when we go to the next slide. In banking, there are critical things that we call prudential ratios. That is the health check. Like for human beings, you look at your vitals, your blood level, your oxygen, your whatever. The vitals of a banking institution is, the regulators will tell you capital adequacy ratio. How adequate is your capital? The capital adequacy ratio, the minimum requirements for a bank like Zenith Bank is 15%.
Our capital adequacy ratio has always been in the region of 20%. Last year it was 21%. It is really very strong. Our liquidity ratio as a group, the Zenith Bank Group, including all our subsidiaries, our liquidity ratio is 71%. We have cash. We have cash. That cash enables us to explore opportunities, to provide, to invest in our technology, to support our customers, and to explore opportunities to increase returns to the shareholders. That is the significance of that. Then we mention subsidiaries. If you go to the next slide. All our subsidiaries, we do not go into other countries for the fun of it. All our subsidiaries have consistently reported profits. Consistently. We do not have a single subsidiary that is making loss. We do not. All our subsidiaries today are making profits.
The last time I checked with their CFOs, they have assured me that they will continue making profits. With all this that I have said, what is the future? What does the future lie for Zenith? Last year, in 2023, we made profit before tax of NGN 795 billion. Now, in first quarter, Q1 of 2024, we have reported profit of NGN 320 billion. That is one quarter. If we do a simple projection of that, it places Zenith Bank in a very comfortable position to close the 2022 financial year. Sorry. To close the 2024 financial year with a profit mark exceeding NGN 1 trillion. With that, and the fact that I have mentioned to you, we are very strong in capital and liquidity. For our shareholders, you see value. What you have is value. We are ready to deliver value.
Your return on equity, return on asset is going to be stronger. We are going to deliver net interest margin, NIMs, of double digits. We are going to continue to get our cost-to-income ratio to go down. Once we achieve all these things, the dividend-paying opportunity becomes bigger and brighter, which our shareholders will definitely enjoy. For our customers, you also have to be rest assured, your money is always safe in Zenith. Your transactions are always safe with Zenith. For our investors, you would realize more value by sticking to Zenith, by investing more in Zenith, investing in value, and you would always reap the benefits and the value of your investment in Zenith. Thank you very much.
Another round of applause for Dr. Mukhtar Adam for that brilliant exposé on the Zenith Bank financial performance, the historical financial performance, and the future financial outlook. I really enjoyed the way he painted the story of the events in Nigeria's banking sector. It is fair to say that we are not just a resilient bank, but we are actually a resilient industry. We are a resilient nation. I think we all deserve a round of applause.
That completes our key presentations for the day, from our business strategy of growth to the solid management team, to our governance framework, our digital and technology platforms, which allows us to provide world-class services to SMEs and the corporate banking segment. Of course, all of this without forgetting the need to invest in people and communities in an environmentally sustainable way. I think it is fair to say that Zenith Bank is a trailblazing institution.
Another round of applause for our management team and our CFO. Now we are going to move to the Q&A segment. To help us along, I would just like to remind you all that you can participate in the Q&A by logging into the Slido platform and entering the event code that is on our screens now. I would like to invite the entire ExCo team as well as our CFO back up for the Q&A session. The Group Managing Director, CEO, Dame Dr. Adaora Umeoji, OON. Please give them a warm welcome as they all come on stage. Executive Director, Dr. Henry Oroh. Executive Director, Adobi Nwapa . Executive Director, Mr. Akin Ogunranti. To also join will be Executive Directors Adamu Lawani and Executive Director Louis Odom. Of course, last but by no means least, Dr. Mukhtar Adam, the Group CFO.
A round of applause for them as they all come on stage. We will just give them a few moments to settle down before we get into the Q&A. You still have time to please put your questions on the platform, and you can do so anonymously, or you can state your name if you so choose. Okay, thank you very much. We have all the mics working. We have water. We will need that for the journey ahead. Okay, so we have a few questions on the platform. We will start with a question for, perhaps I will direct this to the Group MD.
The question is from anonymous, and it says, "What challenges do you foresee in expanding into the Francophone African regions as your presentation highlighted, and how does Zenith Bank plan to address them?" So I would like the Group Managing Director and CEO, Dr. Adaora Umeoji, OON, to please take this question.
Thank-
Yeah, I think it is good
Thank you very much. My name.
Yes, a bit. We need a bit, maybe we can get a bit more volume from the sound team at the back.
Thank you very much, Rolake, for that very interesting question. For us in Zenith Bank, in every challenge we see opportunities.
We see Francophone countries as a country with tremendous opportunities, and is a growing GDP economy. Like we said earlier on in our presentation, we follow trade, we follow transactions, and we follow our customers. We follow the money. We realize that most of our customers have footprints in most of those African countries, and we are following them to those countries. For us in Zenith Bank, we know and we are very careful about our choices of locations we go to, and remember that we still have opportunity to analyze the risk and the challenges before going to those countries. We know that typically going to a Francophone country to register your footprints, the most important thing you are going to envisage as challenge there will be the language barrier and the cultural challenges.
For us, our strategy to mitigate this will be to actually ensure that, for the language, we employ the indigenes. The indigenes are going to be able to help us. We are going in as a foreign bank, but by the time we employ indigenes, we become a local bank. For the culture, we have a culture of excellence as embedded in us by our visionary Chairman, Dr. Jim Ovia. That culture of excellence that we carry everywhere we go, culture of discipline, culture of focus, and culture of reinventing ourselves everywhere we go. We are going to take that same culture and replicate it in the environment wherever we go. We are very confident that we are putting a lot of things in place, especially recently, we signed an agreement with African Continental Free Trade Area, that is AfCFTA.
We signed trade agreement with them, and with that, we can leverage on it to be able to deepen relationship in most of those Francophone countries. For us, we are not seeing any challenge. Before we make such bold step, we would have calculated our challenges and our risk, and we are sure we are going to deliver more value to our shareholders as we expand to those countries. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Dr. Adaora Umeoji, for that. There is another question here. This is more a macroeconomic question. I think perhaps we can have ED Adamu Lawani take this question. How has the recent hikes in CRR and MPR impacted the bank's business? That is the recent hikes in the cash reserve ratio and the monetary policy rate. These are policy measures by the CBN impacted the bank's business.
Thank you. Good morning.
Good morning.
You can hear me?
Very well.
Good morning. Good morning, our founder and our Chairman. Good morning, all our stakeholders. Rolake, thank you for that question. If I am going to answer you in one word, it has impacted us positively. Yes, the Central Bank will come out with policies from time to time. CRR increase is one of the monetary policy measures they adopted to tame inflation and to control price stability. We see that achieved some level of result. However, it also came with some challenges. For the banking sector, not just Zenith Bank, that has limited the availability of fund for you to lend to your customer. We have also seen increase in the cost of fund, which has also impacted in the cost of lending. As a bank, our focus remain the same.
From the position we have seen this morning and from the commitment, the figures our CFO announced to us, we can see that as a bank, historically, we do not see challenges. We do not see limitations. We see opportunities. Those policies, we see opportunities. We will continue to take advantage of those opportunities to deliver excellent results. I would like to commit to all the stakeholders here that with the leadership of our Group MD/CEO, Dr. Adaora Umeoji, the support of the board led by our founder and our chairman, the man that invented modern banking, with the support of the entire management and staff of Zenith Bank, we will continue to deliver excellent results to our stakeholders, to our shareholders. The CFO announced the figures we have achieved. That is just the beginning.
In 2024, he had committed, and when he mentioned that figure, I had some of my colleagues who are business development team, they were saying, "We will do better than that." Where I was seated, I heard them saying, "We will do better than that." I assure our stakeholder that we will do better than that. We will continue to push, we will continue to drive, we will continue to deliver the results. Like I said, those policies are there. We will comply. The chairman had told us, and one of his policy is founding policy that comply with regulations. We will comply with those regulations, but we will look at the opportunities available. We will take advantage of them and deliver premium quality performance to our stakeholders. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Adamu Lawani. Zenith Bank certainly in the business of seeing opportunities where there are challenges. We will stay on the macroeconomic front now. I will direct the next question to our CFO, Dr. Mukhtar Adam. The question. I will combine a couple of questions, actually. The question is around how the bank is hedging against FX volatility. How is it impacting the bank's book, and what is our outlook for the exchange rate for 2024? Dr. Adam, please.
Thank you very much, Rolake, for the packed questions. Exchange rate conversation is a difficult conversation in Nigeria, especially in these times. How is it impacting our book? How have we hedged our books? Yes, Zenith Bank, we have always had the foresight. We strategize. You would realize that we do not deliberately place ourselves to benefit from exchange rate crises. As a bank, we have structured our balance sheets in such a way that when there is devaluation, it does not erode the value of our shareholders. That is extremely important to us. How do we see the exchange rates progress? We think that in terms of volatility, we think or we believe that the worst is over. We closed 2023 financial year with an exchange rate of about NGN 951 to a dollar.
In the first quarter of 2024, we have seen exchange rate moving to as high as NGN 1,800, NGN 1,700. That was extremely high. We have also seen the monetary policy authorities working round the clock to bring it down. At some point, it went as low as NGN 1,200, NGN 1,100. But in recent days, we have seen it trying to stabilize around NGN 1,500. For us in banking business, and for everybody in Nigeria, stability is extremely important, irrespective of the level. Once it is stable, it allows you to plan. It allows everybody to plan and be able to execute your plan.
So we have seen it hovering around NGN 1,500, and we are using that as a guide to plan, to take the necessary precautions and hedge on our balance sheet, such that when it starts being volatile again, which we don't pray for, we will still not destroy shareholder value.
We think the navigation is almost over. We hope to see more stability, and that would also give us more stability in our balance sheet and our performance. So, we are watching. Be rest assured, the volatility is not going to destroy the shareholder values of Zenith Bank shareholders. Thank you.
Thank you, Dr. Mukhtar Adam. There was a follow-up question around the outlook for the exchange rate. I don't know whether you wanted to comment on that or whether we should move on.
What was that?
The outlook on the exchange rate.
Outlook?
Yes, sir.
Well, I think I have tried to explain that the monetary policy authority is doing whatever they can do to ensure that we have an exchange rate that does not result in underpricing of the naira. We want our national currency, the naira, to be strong. The monetary policy authority is working on that. We have seen it stabilizing around NGN 1,500. We think it would hover around that rate. More importantly for us is how stable it is going to be. Whatever rate it is going to be, let it be stable. We think it is going to stabilize around that NGN 1,500. We are using that as a guide for our budget, our projections, and everything as we monitor the market.
Okay, thank you very much. Stability is key. Okay, so we have a question around oil and gas exposures. The question is, how does the bank plan to manage oil and gas exposures? I think we will direct this to ED Henry to help us tackle.
Yeah, thank you, Rolake, and good morning to you all again. Yes, the oil and gas is a very strategic sector in our economy. We're a big oil-exporting country. Fact number one is that the revenues for these operators are in USD, so that is a good thing. Fact number two, given the size of this exposure, it is usually a syndication among the leading banks in the country. We have common terms, and what affects one affects the other. The point is, how did we get here? The challenge we had had in this sector bordered on insecurity in the Niger Delta, high level of vandalization, and where you produce, say, 50,000 bbl per day, and before you move the product to the vessel, you probably lose 70%, and you probably get 10,000 bbl to 15,000 bbl or 20,000 bbl into the vessel.
No producer will work under those environment. What the government has done in the last couple of years is to fix the security problems in the Niger Delta. Because of the better security, we have seen an improvement in production, high level of improvement in production. What the operators have done moving forward is improve barging to move products around, and the alternative evacuation route is also supporting operation in that area. Let me also say that the Petroleum Industry Act has also provided a high level of transparency, and under that act, they also introduced the Financial and Technical Service Agreement, which meant that operators can invite investors to invest in these assets to generate output and all that. What we have seen is that in the last couple of months, year, we've seen improved production.
At the very bad times, we were doing about 900,000 bbl per day. The country today, this year, has done as well as over 1.5 million bbl per day. Currently in the region of 1.3 million bbl to 1.4 million bbl. I said that to say that the future is very good, and we are also beginning to see from our books and in the books of the syndicate banks, we are beginning to see increased liquidity and cash flows coming from the operators. Rather than see the oil and gas as a threat, I would rather see it as a great opportunity, not only for banks but for our great country. We see, like I said, the cash flows are getting better. Some of these loans have been rescheduled by the syndicate banks and are beginning to perform.
In the back of the issues we had in the sector, the Central Bank had given banks forbearance and all that. Those forbearance are still there. We believe that in the life of that forbearance, the banks will go through the challenges and those loans will start performing better. The performance of those loans, given the size of those loans, will also increase profitability for the bank and generate better value for shareholders. For me, the outlook is positive and very good.
Thank you, Dr. Henry Oroh. We have a question here on our retail and SME banking segment. I think that was one of the presentations that ED Ogunranti did. The question is around the plans for scaling the retail and SME segment.
The plans for sustaining?
Sustaining and scaling the segment.
Oh, great. Thank you very much. For us as a bank, I think my presentation also covered extensively what we plan to do with the retail. What we see in the retail segment of the market is that we have the opportunity to grow exponentially in this sector. Why do I say so? We still have 37% of Nigerians that are unbanked. These are retail opportunities for us as an institution. Even the existing customers that are currently being banked. Our digital platforms that we're deploying, we've seen it as a veritable tool to be able to woo a lot of retail customers to us.
Over time, one of the things that we've done, for example, with our mobile app, is that we've done a significant upgrade of that app such that we have a lot of our customers who are really very excited and happy with us with respect to this product now. The retail customer is driven by experience. Customer experience is what really drives the retail customer. With the various channels that we have put in place, what we have seen is a significant growth in the number of our retail customers. That has been responsible for the growth that we have recorded in the last five years, from 5 million customers to 33 million customers. We expect that within the next few years, we will probably be talking about banking over 100 million customers as a bank.
With that kind of customer base, it can only get better for the bank in terms of profitability. These customers benefit from our retail loan programs. They benefit from depositing their monies with the bank, which provides a veritable pool of funds that we can also use to create risk assets, even for the corporates that we are traditionally known to bank. Then again, I also talked equip our SME businesses in terms of support, in terms of capacity building, in terms of funding. With this, as we continue to grow our SME segment of the business, we believe that the country will be able to achieve, ultimately, the $1 trillion economy. We also do have special programs for both the youths as well as women. We have the Z-Woman Program, which encourages entrepreneurship in women.
For us, all we see are opportunities in this sector, whether it's retail, whether it's SME, we believe that it's an opportunity for us to grow exponentially. I have no doubt in my mind that that is what we will come back to you, our shareholders and investors, as our scorecard, and you will be able to get greater shareholder value from this. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Mr. Ogunranti. We've had a couple of questions here on the holdco structure, one from Rita Anthony. What is the bank's plan for the holdco structure? I would like to direct this question to our Group Managing Director, Dr. Adaora.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much again, Rolake, for that question. For us at Zenith Bank, we are very excited about the holdco structure. Holdco structure is a structure that is going to avail us the opportunity to actually get into other business verticals. Holdco structure as it is now is going to give us opportunity to integrate our recently launched ZenPay platform, which is like a fintech arm of Zenith Bank. With the holdco structure, we will be able to integrate that into our business. So that holdco structure creates a lot of opportunity for growth for us and for shareholders' value.
We already started the process, and we are waiting our approvals. As soon as we get the necessary approval, we are going to embrace that structure and use it to drive value and use it to be able to grow the business and ensure that we integrate other business verticals in our business processes. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. We have a few questions on fintech, around how we are responding to emerging disruption to perceived competition from fintech companies. I would like ED Louis, perhaps to take this one.
Okay. Thank you very much, Rolake, and good morning all. Thank you for that interesting question. Interesting in the sense that there has been conversations around fintechs competing with banks. But for us in Zenith, we do not see it that way. We see them as partners, as people we can collaborate with. Today, most of the businesses of the fintech pass through the banks. We serve as settlement bank for most of the fintechs. So any value you unlock will pass through us. In 2023, South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria were the biggest fintech hubs in Africa and attracted the bulk of the equity investment from offshore into Africa in that sector. It would be very bad strategy not to see the opportunities in that segment. Very huge. Another way to look at it is they are beginning to deepen the market in the financial services sector.
All this opening up, all the potentials they are throwing up are opportunities for value creation. Because we see the value in this, the issues of financial inclusion they are bringing on board, that is why noting all these opportunities, we as a bank, we are also launching, like the Group CEO said, our fintech retail arm, ZenPay. I can assure you when we come there, that segment will feel our presence. So we will keep working with them, we will keep collaborating with them because we see the bigger value that they are going to create for everybody in the industry. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Okay, we have a question around ESG. There are quite a few questions on the platform. There is even one on climate, so I guess that segues into ESG. The question is: How does the bank incorporate ESG or environmental considerations into its operations?
Reducing the amount of waste that we generate as a bank. Then for E&S policy, it requires that all significant projects get evaluated, and we monitor them periodically. The E&S policy, too, is also embedded in our credit policies to ensure compliance on the agreed set targets of E&S. So the review of framework for funding and investment activities ensures that projects comply, that is the word, with positive environmental and social practices at every stage. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you very much. So we have a few questions on our capital raise, which seems to be the hot topic at the moment. So I am going to try and group two questions together. The first one is around the plans for the capital raise. What plans do we have for the capital raise? Maybe the Group MD can take that. After that, there is also a question on how the bank plans to retain its equity returns to shareholders post capital raise. So maybe Dr. Mukhtar Adam, the Group CFO, can take that question, and the Group GMD can take the first question. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much, again, Rolake, and for our audience that is asking us a lot of questions today. Thank you very much. This capital raise question really takes me back to memory lane. Talking about taking me back to memory lane, we have survived several capitalization processes. For me, I cannot talk about capitalization without talking about our Chairman and Founder again, because we have various names for him. We call him the crystal ball man. We call him the Nostradamus of our time. We call him the godfather of modern banking. The reason why we gave him all these names is because he has been able to forecast the future for us. He has been able to look at the future and help us to plan better for the future.
The last share capital that was raised by Zenith Bank, he made us raise more way above what industry required. That gave us an advantage in the industry today. Following the recent pronouncement of capital raise by Central Bank of Nigeria, if you look at the amount that Zenith Bank needs to raise today, we have the least compared to the banks of our peers. That is as a result of that vision that our Chairman had to make us go ahead, budget ahead, prepare ahead of time. Today, we are looking forward to raising NGN 230 billion because we are already at NGN 270 billion. That makes it the least amount to be raised. Looking at our trajectory, looking at our track record, brand name, customer base, the numbers we have, the number of customers, the workforce we have. I normally call Zenith workforce.
I call them the unicorn workforce. They cannot be replaced. They are very well trained. We have trained them with a lot of capabilities, and there is no assignment that you give them that they cannot deliver. Looking at raising NGN 230 billion is peanuts for them. It is something that we can raise with a snap of fingers, because as far as we are concerned, we have what it takes to be able to achieve that task. Talking about Nigerian economy, we have talked about financial inclusion, we have talked about tremendous opportunities that are available in the economy. With that, we will be able to raise that capital.
As it is now, we are coming to the market. We have done the necessary filings. We are waiting approvals of SEC and other regulatory bodies. As soon as we get those approvals, we will surely see our footprint in the market.
You will feel it, and we know that when we get there, you will know that Zenith has come.
Indeed. Thank you, Dr. Adaora. Dr. Mukhtar, the question around how Zenith Bank intends to maintain strong equity returns after the capital raise.
Okay. Thank you very much. Yes, we've been discussing about capital raise. Today, Zenith Bank share capital in issue is 31.2 billion units. Let's round it up to 32 billion units, for example. If you go to the stock market, maybe for those that are checking the market prices, maybe the share price of Zenith Bank today is around NGN 37. Let's even round it to say NGN 30, roughly, for ease of estimation. In our balance sheet today, we have share capital of NGN 15 billion. We have share premium of NGN 255 billion, making a total of NGN 270 billion. We have NGN 230 billion more to meet the CBN minimum requirement. If we want to raise NGN 230 billion and our share price is maybe NGN 35, we want to give probably some discount to give right issue.
We want to give some discount to encourage new shareholders, assuming we want to issue it at NGN 30, for example. We will not issue more than between 7.5 billion to 8 billion units. That is what we are going to issue. If you add that to our 32 billion units of shares, that gives you 39 billion units. That is just 25% increase in the number of shares, right? Based on my presentation earlier and the projections that we have for our profitability, our profit is going to grow by over 70%. If the number of shares is growing by just 25% and the profit is growing by about 70%, there is no way the return will be lower.
With just additional 7.5 billion- 8 billion units of shares that we are doing, even if we had those extra shares as at last year, we could have easily paid the same dividend that we paid as at last year. Raising additional share capital is not going to impede our ability to pay good dividends to our shareholders and even do more. It is also not going to reduce our return on equity in any way. Just rest assured.
Thank you very much, and I hope that satisfies. There were a few questions on the platform around rights issue public offer, but I think that has been broadly covered. I think we have time just to take one more question. Maybe I will direct this to Dr. Henry Oroh. This is around the use of innovative technology to drive the business and tackle things like cybersecurity. All our digital technology, how is it going to help us tackle and drive our business?
Yeah. Thank you, Rolake. We also know that as you are growing a business, as you are innovating to create solutions in the tech space, there are certain other people who are working on the other side to work against you. For us, as we grow the business, we are also providing protection for the customer. We are investing in firewalls, FireEye, various protection that is proactive. With the customer, if you sign on any of our products, before we deploy it to you, we would have done extensive vulnerability checks. Very, very extensive. You can be sure that whatever product of Zenith you are using, you are safe, you are secured.
In my earlier presentation, I discussed the level of investment we have done to provide world-class technology to drive the business. In the last one year, thereabout, we have spent over $ 100 million to improve our technology. It is not only providing a robust solution, robust platform for you, that investment is also to provide a secure platform for the bank. I dare say, there is no bank in Nigeria that has done that level of investment in the last one or two years. For you, our teeming customers and stakeholders and shareholders, you are dealing with a bank that is providing you tomorrow's banking today, that is providing you tomorrow's technology today. This is a mantra. This is a platform that the chairman has built for us over the last decades, and this is the same platform that will drive the business forward.
The assurance is that our technology is the best in the market and will continue to be the best in the market. We will always evolve. As these things change, we evolve. If we have to make that extra investment, we will do that to provide security and to provide convenience for our shareholders and for our customers.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Dr. Henry Oroh. Ladies and gentlemen, we are keen to get you out of here at 12:00PM, so we want to give room for some of the other items on the program. I want to offer the final words, any closing remarks for the panel from our Group GMD or CEO.
Thank you very much for participating in today's program. Thank you very much. For us in Zenith Bank, we will continue to deliver on our promise. Remember that our mantra is people, technology, and service, and we will continue to drive on those mantra to be able to deliver. We will continue to be the best, and we will continue to bring more value to our shareholders. Thank you very much for the confidence and for the trust. We want to assure you we can only be better, and things will even improve and even get better as time goes on. Thank you for your loyalty and your patronage and support. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much to our ExCo. I would ask you to please stay on stage. Ladies and gentlemen, please also be aware that over the coming weeks and months, you will have ample opportunity to engage with us once we launch our offer into the market following regulatory approval. Any questions not dealt with here can be tackled in more detail in the coming weeks. At this point, I would like to ask the ExCo to please rise for a photo. Just as they do, I would like to invite none other than our Group Chairman and Founder, Dr. Jim Ovia CFR, to please join them on stage. Please give him a warm welcome as he comes. Okay. Just hold on a second. Okay, thank you. I see some of our shareholders are quite keen. You will get the opportunity, sir.
We'll just do the photo opportunity first, and then we'll do questions afterwards. May we also kindly request a photo with the Group GMD and the Group Chairman as well after this photo? Thank you. If you just step aside. Just step aside. Yeah, if you just step aside, we're still going to do a round of questions from the shareholders. Would you like to give some remarks?
Thank you very much to our Group Chairman and Founder for coming up to join the ExCo team for the photos. Because we value our people, our customers, and shareholders, we're going to entertain maybe just two questions from our shareholders. Please be seated, ladies and gentlemen. Please keep it brief and concise. I believe we have a mic somewhere.
Go ahead. We can hear you.
Are you sure?
Yes, we can hear you.
No, give him the microphone.
Thank you. I am Sir Olatunde Okelana, the Balogun Olugbon of Orile-Igbon in Oyo State. My questions are in two segments. Number one, I am a customer of the bank, and 99.9% of my funds is in Zenith Bank. I am a shareholder over the years. My question is this: the senior citizen account was formerly 55 years old five years ago. You changed it to 60. What is the reason behind that?
Well-
That question is for the GMD. Hold on.
Well-
Number two, I must tell you, let me see the GMD's face. I have my reason. Let me see her face. That is another mantra. Most of the eight years, I am sorry to tell you this. I called Michael many times. Michael Otu is the bridge between shareholders and the management. He is my living witness. At Transcorp Hilton Abuja, that ATM does not dispense cash to us. It refused to dispense. I am always there, and when I am there, I do not need to go outside the building to get my money. I do not know. I want you to tell me today, did I make a mistake to put all my eggs in one basket in terms of fund?
Thank you, sir.
The one at Ilupeju 2, when you are coming, that is at Obanikoro, before the bus stop. I was there on Saturday evening. I need to get my fund. I do not have money in First Bank. Why do I need to go to First Bank? The ATM did not give me money on Saturday night. On Sunday night, again, I repeated the same thing. I could not get the money. What is the reason why we cannot get most of the money?
Thank you very much, sir.
God bless you. Wait, wait. I am here for that. My people
Sorry, sir, I would kindly ask you to, we have run out of time.
I want you to tell us today before we leave here the right issue. Look, I have been a shareholder of this company since 1990, since that time you came to the market. My dear sister, the right issue encouraged the shareholders more than the public offer. Make sure you give us the opportunity to take our right greedily. Greedily, underline that word because I have confidence in this bank, and because a woman is one of the best managers we can think of. So we want to put more money into this bank. I want to put my money where my mouth is. I came all the way from Orile-Igbon, closer to Ilorin, just for me to attend this investors' forum, and you want me to talk. That is why I give that opportunity. God bless you.
Thank you. Before we get a response, we will just take a question from Mr. Nwosu. Final question, please. Thank you.
Okay.
Please go ahead.
Permit me to sit down.
Sure, sir.
I ask my question. I enjoyed Mukhtar's presentation because he is talking about money. I need money. That is why I have invested in Zenith Bank. So far, we have not been told, are we going to do rights and public offer or we are going to? What are we here for? If you look at the whole audience, you will see we are only a few shareholders here. We want to know. From the beginning of last week, there has been one presentation or the other. They have someone who says, "Don't go to Renji, buy Magana." You have to tell us why you have invited us here. Are we here for right issue or we are here for public offer? We have had almost five banks making presentations, wooing the shareholders to buy their shares. All these are expecting the shareholders to buy the shares.
Our darling bank, which we believe that in our own best interest, we have to buy the shares. We have not been told whether we are here for presentation of right issue or public offer. The GMD will need to tell us why we are here, so that we can shun the other ones that have been giving us.
Thank you.
a lot of presentations.
Thank you, sir.
and other things, so that we can know why we are here.
Thank you very much, sir.
At what price?
Sorry, we can only take two questions, unfortunately, because of time. We'll perhaps let our Group MD tackle the first question around the change in the age limit and also some of the challenges around the cash dispense from the ATMs. Then we'll talk about the capital raise. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you very much, our distinguished shareholders. I can see you have a whole textbook of questions for us today.
Yes.
I will start by the first question that talked about why we moved Timeless Account from 55 to 60. The answer is obvious. We are praying for a longer life for you. I want you to live long. Remember, this Timeless Account is a product for retirees. Remember, the age for retirees is 60 years old, not 55. At 55, you are still very active and we want you to live long, so we decided to make sure we start putting that from 60 years old. That is the reason for that. Second question around our ATM machine. The ATM machine, it might be network, it might be low cash, it might be high demand, but at the same time, remember, the cashless economy is what Nigeria is going towards.
If you keep looking for cash all the time, that means you are not coming with this journey of cashless with us. We need you to follow us with this cashless. Notwithstanding, if there are areas that we need to beef up cash in our ATM machine, we take it as a very good comment, area of improvement. We are going to go and look at all those areas and see how we can improve and make sure we have cash available all the time in those machines. I want to encourage you to use our digital platform so that it can facilitate your processes and your payments. Issue of right issue when the time comes to encourage shareholder is a question. Of course, we are going to encourage shareholders when the time comes.
As soon as we get our approval, we will now see and we bring out modalities. Just be rest assured that whatever it is, our existing shareholders will benefit more based on when the approvals are given. Our plan, why we are here, I will attend that from Sir Sunny Nwo su. He said, why are we here? We are here to sell the strength of Zenith Bank. We are here to show you the trajectory so far. We are here to showcase our scorecard. We are here to tell you that this brand is a formidable brand, and that you are investing in the right brand. You are here because we want to sell our equity story. For us, you talked about capital raise. Yes, the pronouncement by Central Bank governor talked about recapitalization.
One thing that is very obvious is that all the banks are going to the market to raise money and Zenith Bank inclusive. We are part of the banks that are going to raise money. We have made arrangements. Our AGM already approved that we should go to the market, and we are coming to the market very soon. Based on the plan we have on ground so far, subject to approval by SEC and the regulatory authorities, we are planning to do rights issue and public offer, but subject to approvals. These are the plans the bank have. We want to give opportunity for new shareholders to come in while we give the existing shareholders the opportunity to even get more. For now, these things cannot be unveiled until we have the proper regulatory approval to unveil them.
Just be rest assured, we are coming to the market very soon. Thank you very much.
Thank you, ma.
I think that has pretty much answered it. I do not know if there is any more comments on the panel. Thank you again to our ExCo. Thank you for fielding those questions from the floor, and thanks to those who also posed those questions. You may take your seats. At this stage, I would like to invite Executive Director, Mr. Louis Odom, to give the vote of thanks before we close out the session. Thank you.
Good morning once again. I want to thank everyone that came for this event. We are quite excited, we are quite happy, and we sincerely thank you for coming. Specifically, let me specially thank the governor of the state, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented here by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Mr. Samuel Egube. Thank you very much, sir. Egube. Yeah, Egube. Sorry. Pardon me, I did not intend to murder the name. Thank you very much. We really appreciate your presence. I want to specially thank our Group Chairman and Founder, Dr. Jim Ovia, CFR, for being here with us. He is always with us, always. I want to thank him for the brand Jim Ovia that we share. It is a strong brand that has created several tremendous value across industries. Thank you very much, sir, for always being with us.
I also want to thank our brand new Group MD/CEO, the Amazon of our time, for the inspirational leadership she provides. Daily working, daily pushing it. All the ExCo members, truly, we are quite grateful. Thank you to the board, Board of Directors, we are happy. I also want to thank our capital market operators. Thank you for being around. Our regulators, we are happy that you came, you made out time to come. Our esteemed shareholders, thank you. Thank you for the support, thank you for your advice and for being there. Thank you to our investors, institutional, retail investors, thank you for coming. The pensions fund administrators, thank you. Our stockbrokers, equity analysts, we are so grateful. Most importantly, we want to thank our customers. Without you, there would be no us. You represent what we stand for and we will always be there for you.
Our customers will keep remaining the kings of our operations. I also want to thank our colleagues, the strong staff of Zenith Bank, the people that drive the value. We are so grateful. Thank you to members of the press. Thank you for the partnership we have. We appreciate what you do, and we are happy that you are here. Ladies and gentlemen, I also want to thank the organizers of this program. The amount of work that went into organizing this. You know these days we live in two worlds, the one we see and the virtual world. I know that a lot of people joined us virtually for this event. We also want to thank them. We are so grateful that you participated. You see, we appreciate the fact that this is almost middle of the week.
You left all the events you are doing, all the businesses to be here. It means that this is very important to you, and we are happy that you came around, you logged in. We appreciate you. That said, we should not forget why we came here. We came here to share a success story, a story of value addition, a story of an entity that has been adding value, tremendous value, for the past three decades consistently. There has never been a slack. The question we should ask ourselves, what was the value 10 years ago? What is that value today? Most importantly, what would that value be in the next 10 years? Like we said, the numbers will always say the truth. That is the number we are pushing out there. That's the value we want you to invest in.
Once again, I say invest in value, invest in Zenith Bank. Thank you very much for coming. God bless you all. Thank you.
Thank you very much, ED Louis. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, these past 34 years actually, we've given you iconic slogans, we've acted in your best interest, we've put people, technology, and service at the heart of our operations, and we've made your journey with us count by delivering value. Ladies and gentlemen, let's paint the town red. Invest in value, invest in Zenith. To close out, we'll rise for the national anthem, so please be up.