Annual Report & Accounts December 2009 – Charting new frontiers

Group Strategy

Context

At the Group level, FirstBank has undergone a detailed strategic planning process to redefine overall aspirations and realign strategy with long-term goals.

As an outcome of this exercise, the following key decisions were made:

  1. Business line expansion: Refocus the Group and build critical mass in strong growth businesses while continuing to focus on strong profitable growth and expansion of the core banking franchise.
  2. International expansion: Expand internationally into a few priority SSA markets while continuing modest expansion in the deployment of international representative offices to major strategic finance/trade hubs.
  3. Restructuring for growth: Restructure the FirstBank Group such that the Group's operating structure optimally enables its strategy, while ensuring that the right level of management oversight and governance for each unit exists.
  4. Sequencing growth systematically: Sequence growth objectives in an intelligent, structured manner over the planning horizon, to ensure that the right priority is given to the right initiatives at the right time.