The National Investment Bank (NIB) has made significant progress in its roadmap aimed at transforming the bank into a world-class financial institution.

The transition plan, which forms part of a broader transformation programme, is designed at redirecting the bank’s focus towards supporting the industrial development of the country.

The transformation programme will see the bank deepen its hold on industries as its flagship initiative. To this end, significant progress has been made both in human resource training and systems to help achieve this target state.

To consolidate the gains made from the implementation of the strategy, a reconstituted Board of Directors, chaired by Kofi Owusu Sekyere has been inducted with the mandate to achieve the bank’s new strategy.

Ensuring the bank is run efficiently has become more critical now than ever.

To achieve this, Management, in consultation with the majority shareholder, the Board of Directors, and the Unions approved a voluntary exit programme where employees were given the opportunity to voluntarily exit the bank.

This exercise which begun a few months ago has been successfully implemented as an initial step in optimising staff numbers.

Another key initiative was the relocation of the head office from the crowded Accra Central Business District to the Airport City enclave.

This move, coupled with ongoing improvements in operations, have made a positive impact on the bank’s corporate and brand image as customers and prospective investors have unimpeded access to the Head Office to transact business

NIB was originally established to provide financial, advisory and technical support to industry for the growth and development of the country. This objective was, however, diluted over time given that access to long-term capital for on-lending to manufacturing firms in the country became difficult, hence, its venture into universal banking.

The Managing Director, Mr. Samuel Sarpong says “the transformation of the bank is not a mere rhetoric or aesthetic but a real step towards the total restructuring of the bank.

"As the transformation programme progresses, Ghanaians will experience nothing less than a proud local bank supporting industries.”

He added that “governance at the bank has been immensely improved, the balance sheet management has also been enhanced, IT Infrastructure of the bank as well as security around it has been enormously boosted. Again, the bank’s product & service offerings are being revamped, and the risk and compliance framework among others have all been improved greatly.”

Mr. Sarpong emphasized that NIB is not going to be run poorly again.

“The phenomenon where the bank has to fall on shareholders for capital injection due to losses will be a thing of the past after this transformation exercise.”

Following the recent establishment of the National Development Bank (NDB) by government, long-term capital would be available to the bank for long-term lending to the manufacturing sector.

This, if attained and sustained, would help Ghana industrialize, creating more jobs for the teeming youth of the country.