By Babajide Komolafe
LAGOS — The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has confirmed that Wema Bank has met the minimum capital requirement for regional banking license.

Wema Bank had applied for license as a regional bank under the new banking model, while the bank was also one of the three banks directed by the apex bank to shore up their capital base.

On Friday, the apex bank issued a statement saying that Wema Bank has successfully recapitalized and  met the minimum capital base for regional banking license.

Commenting on the development, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive, Wema Bank, Mr. Segun Oloketuyi, said the recapitalization was part of the gains of the on-going transformation of the bank.

He said having met the capital base requirement for regional banking, the focus of the bank now was rendering quality services to the banking public. The bank has opted for a regional banking status under the new banking regime, which according to Oloketuyi implies that the bank will now operate within the South_West, South South zones and the federal capital territory.

Oloketuyi, however, said that being a regional bank does not in anyway impede the perfomance or profitability of a bank adding that what matters most is the services rendered to the banking public.

“The truth of the matter is that we do not anticipate any image problem. What an average bank customer wants is timeous delivery of quality service and for a bank to be there when it is needed. The quality of service that we render will more than compensate for the spread of our operations. In the past, there were some banks in the country that had less than 10 outlets and did excellently well with reasonable customer_base.

“The quality of service we render will continually be the attraction to any and all of our customers. Remember I have said that the license you hold as a bank, as important as it is, is not as important as the quality of service you render.

Indeed, it is the quality of service you render that interests the customer. By the time you give them what they want where and when they need those services, you would have made their day. This is our target.” he said