WEMA BANK Announces 108.3% Growth In Profit Before Tax and Total Assets Now Above ₦1Trillion

Posted on April 5, 2022April 5, 2022 by DigitalMCIR

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Wema Bank Affirms Commitment to SMEs Growth

Posted on March 1, 2022March 1, 2022 by DigitalMCIR

WEMA Bank MD Shares Insight On Data Protection and Cyber-Security With Accountants

Posted on February 22, 2022February 22, 2022 by DigitalMCIR

In Lagos, Nigeria. Tuesday, February 15, 2022: The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Wema Bank Plc, Mr Ademola Adebise, has advised accountants to store data safely and protect them against cybersecurity threats and other criminal breaches. Adebise said this on Tuesday at the 16th Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN)

Western Accountants Conference themed ‘Digital Economy: Whither the Professional Accountant’ held in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

The MD/CEO who stressed the importance of data storage and security said that accountants in the digital age must be flexible and knowledgeable to save data on storage devices on-premises or in the cloud. He also noted that in case of loss or data corruption, the 21st-century accountant needs to be conversant with the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) to mitigate loss.

Mr Adebise explained that “a large amount of data is sitting on storage. As accountants, we need to safeguard our storage and be versed in data recovery and business continuity planning should there be a loss or corruption of data.

“The accountant must be aware of contemporary issues on cybersecurity – ensuring that digital information is safe and secure, at all times. Going digital exposes you to risk from hackers. So, as an accountant, you need to have an in-depth knowledge of cybersecurity and must be aware of the various data and information security standards to audit the environment.”

Apart from being security conscious and storing data securely, the MD/CEO further noted that modern accountants should understand the changes taking place in the profession, including the evolution from traditional data collection methods.

He said, “these include using Enterprise Resource Planning systems that are interconnected to process data from production, distribution, marketing and sales. The accountant, therefore, needs to be skilled to understand the complexities, transaction flows of the new ways of doing things and understand what data is saying.”

In Nigeria, the most popular forms of cybercrimes that accountants and other professionals in the financial services sector are susceptible to include fraudulent electronic mails, identity theft, hacking, cyber harassment, spamming and Automated Teller Machine spoofing.

The biggest, however, is still fraud emails. The Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) revealed that bank customers lost a total of N3.6 billion to cyber-fraud in two years (2017 and 2018).

Data released by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) also showed attempted fraud in 2018 alone was about N9 billion.

–Ends–

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Posted on February 22, 2022February 22, 2022 by DigitalMCIR

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The 2022 Budget: What You Need To Know

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The Impending New Covid-19 Variant: How SMEs Should Prepare To Safeguard Their Business

Posted on December 14, 2021May 31, 2022 by DigitalMCIR

Small and Medium-Sized- Enterprises (SMEs) play a key role in national economies around the world both in developed and developing countries: generating employment and contributing to GDP growth. Small businesses act as important tools to achieve environmental sustainability and more inclusive growth.

Over the last few decades, globalization, rapid technological advances and dizzying products development have propelled small- and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) toward sustainable innovation to gain competitive advantage. The growth of this space is now threatened by the devastating impact of the covid-19 pandemic.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has mutated (changed), resulting in new variants of the virus (Delta variant and omicron variant are examples of notable variants). The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic affected every industry as it disrupted supply chains and forced the shutdown of various businesses. The period of closure and movement prevention policies adopted by governments in many countries have greatly affected SMEs, paralysing their operations, weakening their financial positions, and exposing them to financial risk

Unfortunately, after months of steady decline, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are creeping back up which is of great concern globally. As the world is adjusting gradually to the new normal, it is very necessary for SMEs to take advantage of leveraging on sustainable innovation and strategies in growing their business beyond.

Various strategies have been identified as potential drive which SMEs can use to improve their competitiveness in global markets amidst developing covid-19 variant:

Networking and Flexible production strategies: SME’s can exploit the networking space to identify new markets and promote their products through various online sales platform. These online channels offers enormous opportunities such as e-commerce sales and lower operating cost.
Continuous Entrepreneurial Skills Development: entrepreneurial capabilities are also important in increasing the development and survival rates of start-ups. There is need to keep growing new skills and ideas in maintaining sustainable business growth.
Improve on product branding: SMEs should make branding an integral part of their business plan rather than an afterthought. Branding helps in creating demand for products and services, resulting in faster sales. Even for B2B business, branding creates recognition, reputation and trust resulting in better conversions.
Adapting to current market trends: market trend keeps changing and unpredictable because of these newly discovered variant cases. SMEs need to be monitoring trends in their product/service markets continuously to ensure customers satisfaction requirements are met and changes in customer preferences are caught early.
Preplanning and learning from experience: Preplanning has always been considered a strategic management process that helps to fight against uncertainties. Outbreak of Covid-19 created a wake-up call regarding external uncertainty and degradation in the social and economic development. SMEs should identify substitutes for product ingredients ahead of disruptions or be able to pivot to new products in case of problems with some products.

Behind every crisis is an opportunity, as the saying goes but opportunity favours only those who are prepared. The 2008 global financial meltdown hit so hard and created disruption that will remain fresh in the minds of many people for years to come. To those who were prepared, the economic recession was the best of times and to those who weren’t prepared; it was the worst of times. The global economic recession came like a tsunami and swept away lots of businesses; both big and small.

The business environment is continually changing all over the world, SMEs are central to the collective goal of increasing productivity turnover and ensuring that the benefits from increased globalisation are sustained. SMEs entrepreneurial opportunities represent an important vector for economic and social participation.

Greater flexibility and capacity to plan can give SMEs a competitive advantage in global markets relative to the current new normal economy challenges, as they are able to respond rapidly to changing market conditions.

Conclusion

The Covid-19 pandemic is the new normal and it seems it will be with us for a while. The introduction of new virus variants will keep changing the dynamics of doing business worldwide. While the prospects for many SMEs may look discouraging, the pandemic still presents opportunities for businesses that are proactive. A good example are the companies that pivoted from making gels or other FMCG products to manufacturing hand sanitizers. It is advisable now for SMEs to assess the damages their companies may face and strategically create protection measures that will assist in mitigating the impact of the pandemic while maximizing the opportunities that will most certainly present themselves once the pandemic is contained.

Wema Bank Signs Davido as Brand Ambassador

Posted on December 6, 2021December 6, 2021 by DigitalMCIR

Income statement (₦’bn)	FY 2021	FY 2020	(∆)	(∆%)
Gross Earnings	92.14	79.88	12.26	15.35%
Interest Income	73.30	63.04	10.26	16.27%
Net Interest Income	39.87	30.86	9.01	29.19%
Non-interest income	18.83	16.83	2	11.88%
Operating expense	44.22	36.00	8.22	22.83%
Profit before Tax	12.38	5.94	6.44	108.3%
Profit after Tax	8.93	4.59	4.34	94.53%
Earnings Per Share	23.2kobo	11.9kobo	11.3	95 %

Balance Sheet (₦)	FY 2021	FY 2020	(∆)	(∆%)
Total Assets	1,164.52bn	968.58bn	195.95bn	20.23%
Loans and Advances	418.86bn	360.08bn	58.79bn	16.33%
Deposits	927.47bn	804.87bn	122.60bn	15.23%
*Shareholders’ Funds*	70.36bn	59.14bn	11.22bn	18.97%

Key Ratios (in %)	FY 2021	FY 2020	(∆)
Return on Average Equity	17.26	14.31	2.95
Return on Average Asset	1.16	0.85	0.31
Yield on Asset	14.29	14.49	-0.20
Net Interest Margin	6.18	5.74	0.44
Capital Adequacy Ratio	15.46	12.35	3.11
Loan-to-Deposit Ratio	46.96	43.86	3.10
Non-Performing Loans Ratio	4.88	4.45	0.43
Cost to Income Ratio	78.12	83.79	5.67

Ndianabasi Udondian
RETAIL AND SME