In the financial landscape jungle across Africa, the Lion is not the king- the Elephant is!
The story was told of the day “the Elephant” strolled into the Nigerian Stock Exchange. There was a frenzy in the streets as FirstBank’s N100 billion Hybrid Stock Offer was oversubscribed by 755%!
There is always something special about ‘firsts’.
First love, first kiss, first car, firstborn and indeed coming first in class in those days!
If the Nigeria Stock Exchange were a school and financial institutions were siblings, FirstBank would take the first position in class and would earn the title of firstborn.
In 1894, Sir Alfred Lewis Jones founded the British Bank of West Africa (BBWA), making it the first and oldest bank in Nigeria. The first recorded merger and acquisition was BBWA acquiring Anglo-African Bank in 1912 while in 1971 another first was recorded when BBWA changed its name to Standard Bank of Nigeria and became the first financial institution to be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
“The Big One” is on record as the first to accomplish such a feat and in the following year, became the first Nigerian bank and first listed company on the Exchange to hit N2 trillion market capitalisation.
Firstbank is truly the first! Wouldn’t you rather be in the company of pioneers?
Visit www.firstbanknigeria.com to learn more about our heritage