Managing the Public relation affairs portfolios of Nigeria’s leading bank , Access Bank Plc to a top notch despite daily challenges confronted by customers, shareholders and Stakeholders is not an easy task afterall.But for Abdul.Imoyo,his unique performance and improve efforts has not only cemented Access Bank Plc as a leadding bank but his ability to analyze a situation has positioned the Bank for the greatest benefit which is amazing.
Abdul’s experience as a seasoned finance journalist has no doubt helped his image making work, being an image maker for a top Deposit Money Bank.
While receiving an award organised by Africa Newspaper of Nigeria, publisher of The Tribune Titles on behalf of Access Bank as the nost improved bank few months back, Abdul said that despite the challenges of the Covid -19 pandemic ,the bank is positioned to do more in the coming years and will continue to grow in order to satisfy the yearnings of Nigerians and Africans at large.
True to his words , Access Bank today is the fastest growing bank in Afica . The bank recently spread its tentacles to East and South African countries by taking over banks in South Africa(Grobank),Kenya,Zambia and Mozambique’s African banking Corporation.
As the head of the Public Relations and Media Relations Desk of Access Bank Plc , he’s
saddled with the responsibility of engaging the stakeholders especially the press, shareholders, customers, the public, government and even the communities where the Bank branches are operating from . His job entails managing information and ensuring that the right information is passed on to the public through the right channels.
Imoyo holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration from Lagos State University and a Masters of Administration from the University of Lagos (Unilag).In a chat wifh
Waka About Africa ,Abdul revealed his modus operandi and his role with Access bank in a very straightforward but also tasking manner, however the way and manner he goes about it with all ease gives the infectious sense of responsibility.
“The job is exciting and interesting in the sense that, given my background, first and foremost, I’m a journalist, so, I think I enjoyed a lot of goodwill from my colleagues out there. Mainly, maybe because of the relationship that we’ve enjoyed, before I crossed over to the banking industry, I think so far, it’s been interesting, because, as I said, I’m enjoying that goodwill, from my friends and colleagues in the media that makes my job easier. Also, the bank has been very supportive too, because they give me all I need to make my work easier. It’s been easy from both sides, I’m enjoying it. Therefore I wouldn’t want to take it for granted for any reason whatsoever”. “I have passion for the job that I do, coming from my background as a journalist, and now still working with the same media stakeholders in a core critical and challenging role; and the ability to function in an environment that allows me to express myself, empowering me with all that is required to deliver”.
On his daily schedule , Abdul said ““I work around the clock 24/7, because these days Journalism works non stop without sleeping , there is print, TV, radio, there is online news on the go and others. So my work is 24/7 because even as I’m here now, my bosses expect me to know what is going on. Like, right now, I should be able to know if there is any news about us, where the news is coming from, you have to be in the mind of like a million people to know what they are thinking, what they are going to write about us. It’s also been good for me, because of my background in journalism, he recalls. “I wake up to come to the office, do news review all-round check many industry news, know the one that relates to us and where we notice people feel that there are some concerns about us, we try to address it and at the same time, we still push out the good news about us because it has to be good for us to attract investors, for us to attract customers because we get a lot of quaries from some of the investors and stakeholders especially when they feel the news are not too good they want to know whether it’s true or false how are we addressing it”.
On what area of his job he finds most challenging and interesting as well, hear him “What I find more challenging is when I wake up in the morning I see news that is not too palatable, especially coming from maybe people that I think knows better, or people that I think have access to me that should have at least try to cross-check. I’m not saying don’t write but let’s balance it. You can come to me and say I have this information, what do you have to say about it, or what’s your own side of the story. I’ve seen people come to me with their own personal stories they want to paint it like it’s from somewhere else or they got it from somewhere, when I try to look into it and what they want to write, They will come up maybe with a different example of someone else and they are charging unsolicited deduction, I’ll say, please send me the details and when you look through the details, you will find out it is this same person, and he’s was trying to paint it or make it look like its a general problem, maybe because I’ve done the job before, so I expect that you should even know what is news. People come to you with some kind of news and you would even be wondering, the question will be are you supposed to be doing this job like this, at this point, but you can’t blame them that is what the job they have to do and another thing is, I know there’s a deadline in journalism, but you’re coming to me with something exclusive, even me I don’t have the information on the go. I need to get back to someone in the senior management to give me the details, and you’re telling me you have one hour to write the story, I’ll be like, it’s exclusive to you and when it’s exclusive I don’t see the rush, but these days, you just see people want to do the story like it’s yesterday while is not breaking news.
When a story is exclusive to you then its exclusiveness gives you enough time to get the facts so that you can come out with a good story. When someone is calling me at 3′ pm to tell me that he has to get the story out by 5 pm, I’ll tell you that even the person that is going to give me the information may probably not be in the office or even around. Maybe even the man who also may get it may need some information from somewhere else to be able to do it well, I advise you to just wait to get the facts so that it will be a balanced story. Those are some of the challenges we are addressing and we try to manage as well as to get people to understand that we need each other, you need me, I need you but I wouldn’t tell you not to write but if you don’t go out with the right information, it hurts me, and at the same time it will hurt you because it gives you credibility if you do a good story. I think people can see through it and say it’s a good story you that you have done, but if you just do it anyhow, it also has an impact on your own reputation and the brand that you’re trying to put out there;”
Head Media Relations Access Bank , Abdul Imoyo receiving the Most improved Bank Award from Africa Newspaper of Nigeria publisher of The Tribune
Also, the interesting part of it is the kind of support I get from my colleagues, especially in the media, when I send out a story and don’t need to solicit for positioning next thing you see it on the cover of the newspaper, or even a picture is on the cover it makes it interesting for me, it makes me look good. You know, especially when you don’t have to solicit and say please I want the news on the front page and the next thing you see it on the cover page, that makes it interesting for me,”
On his emergence as the head of Public relations of Access Bank , , Abdul said it was God’s grace that paved way for him knowing full well that people with more experience were interviewed for same position before him .He said through capacity training, resources, he has been able to deliver and also enjoy the support of his colleagues especially his group head,
On what it takes or require for one to occupy the position as bank’s image-maker he quipped
” It Is not even about Access bank rather it is a general thing in the industry and outside banking, PR has different branches or different aspects of it, there’s branch management, reputation management, crisis management, all that come to play in your job role, and job description. There are so many angles to deal with it. Because the most important thing that you’re trying to do is put your brand there in good lines, letting people know what you’re doing and the benefits they stand to gain if they partner with you. Right now in Access bank, we have over 45million customers, it’s not a joke, there’s a lot we need to do that we’re still doing to ensure that we keep these customers we are also working hard to attracts more, when you say 45 million but we are over 200 million people in Nigeria, this means out of every five people you come across one is at least a customer of Access bank, that’s good for us. And we don’t want to let it go. We don’t want to lose any of our customers but do all we can to keep them and want to even get more, we’re not only in Nigeria, we’re everywhere now. In Africa, we’re expanding, we are an International Bank, in the UK, in Dubai, in China, even in Lebanon, so it’s no more like it’s only in Nigeria. We have a lot going for us and we aspire to be the most respected African Bank.
We are also working hard to be Africa’s gateway to the world so that every transaction across Africa, anything you want to do in Africa and across,we want to be the channels that you can leverage onto to do everything you need. Anywhere in the world you will find us there, we have the platform to give you access to the World. whatever transaction you want to do, we give you access, we are Access bank so we give you access to the world.
We have the best products for every segment, the best services and we operate with speed and when we say with speed it means timely transactions, we don’t keep you unnecessarily, we don’t delay you. And then we’ll give you the services and there is security. Our security means that you’re safe with us. Your money is safe so you can go to bed and be sure that you’re in the best place because we have the people and the resources that can deliver faster and safe.
Abdul agrees that there’s pressure but the pressure is part of the work, is there any easy work. I want to find out if there is any job without pressure, that’s why I’m here and that is the job’ calls will come as I said, it’s even better when you are getting the calls because you don’t want to wake up tomorrow and discover that somebody has put up something that I should have even make an input. So it’s part of the job so let the calls be coming in, it is good for me, that is why I’m here “to provide all necessary and required information ”
Abdul’s experience as a journalist helps too, he recounts ‘as a journalist those days you call people to say, I have this or I want to inquire and sometimes they don’t pick a call, sometimes they don’t come back to you with the information, not until you have done the story, then they start calling or calling your bosses to say, why did you do that story besides it’s not a good story in some cases, they will feel that maybe somebody is sponsoring you, and there is an unseen hand behind the stories you are doing. That tells me that I need to correct that here because even here, I still work as a journalist because my job also entails looking inward to know what we’re not doing well? What is it that we need to improve on? I try as much as possible, as a brand ambassador, there’s a way one has to comport himself/herself, is the same way for every other person in the bank. comportment and others is the ethics of the profession it’s more like, I have been there before and I’m here now, I have experience on both sides.
Abdul so far has been doing his best to maintain a great relationship with the media . Like every other professional, he’s not perfect , he thinks he enjoys some measure of goodwill out there. but so far, he thinks if, on a scale of one to ten, he can score himself eight over ten.you can’t have it all he posited.. whatever story that is going out, won’t be about Abdul Imoyo, it’s about access bank, so if I do well, it is resourceful to the bank.
“Let me even tell you that I’ve won two awards as the most resourceful corporate affairs manager in the industry. So that means it’s resourceful to the bank. The job we do with my colleagues attracts goodwill to the brand. And like I said, we’ve won awards based on that.
Access bank has over 400 branches in Nigeria after the merger with Diamond bank we are in Sierra Leone, Gambia, Ghana, Mozambique DR Congo, Zambia, South Africa and Kenya.
Globally , Acccess bank presence can be feIt in China, Dubai and in Lebanon .The Bank has an office in the UK and its a whole bank on its own.
Group Managing Director/CEO, Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe and Managing Director, Access Bank South Africa, Bennie van Rooy exchange pleasantries at the formal launch and unveiling of the new Access Bank SA recently…in South Africa
Explaining to Waka About Africa on Access bank being recognized by the Asian Banker and the Middle East as the most digitalized bank in Africa. Mr. Abdul said that for Asian Banker and the Middle East to give Access bank an award in 2020 as the best-digitalized bank in Africa meant a lot to the Bank . He maintained that Access bank is ahead in terms of digital technology.
According to him “Our technology is superb in terms of innovation were are ahead, technology these days is the key to what we are doing, in terms of innovation, we have a defined Africa FinTech Foundry, our platform is technology-driven, and this helps us to move faster, be innovative, and at the end of the day deliver on technology and the help for Fintech startups and from that, we develop ideas process it and put it to use. He emphatically added that Access Bank’s digital system is beyond the act of online Fraud Stars “Yeah, I must say that we have a foolproof system, but you never can tell because when you talk of technology, everyday people keep trying to invent their own system and stuff. Somebody sent me a video this morning, about one guy, a cyber-fraudster and the guy claims to have the technique to get into people’s accounts by having their SIM card, all he needs is their SIM card, once he gets your SIM card, and he can get into your accounts especially if the SIM card is the one that is registered to your account where you get alerts and information on your account. Once the SIM cards are linked to your account, he claims that, that account is not safe, he claims that he has all the techniques and all the software and everything to get into that account and transfer money into a known account he creates. He can transfer from Bank A to bank B so how he gets the money out at the end of the day. Be that as it may, I can assure you that we are quite safe and secure so I guess that’s also why we won the award as the most “digitalized bank in Africa”, he concludes.
