FIDELIS
TILIJE: Bringing fortunes to customers
Fidelis
Tilije is one of the new discoveries of the banking revolution.
Currently the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of
Fortune International Bank Plc., his greatest achievement was the
raising of a new bank from the ashes of the dead Commercial Bank
for Africa (CBA) in 1999.
Re-introducing the Bank in 1999, Tilije brought
to bear his experience that spans over ten years in the banking
industry. He succeeded
in bringing up Fortune Bank under a new name, a new logo and a new
management. In few
years, the bank became a known name in the energy sector funding.
The
performance of the bank in 2001 brought into limelight the
professional skill of the
University
of
Lagos
trained banker. The
Bank recorded an impressive turnover in excess of N4 billion
against the year 2000, figure of N1.07 billion.
The year 2000 profit before tax of N344 million and profit
after tax of N331 million was improved upon to reach N949 million
and N837 million respectively in year 2001.
Tilije started his banking career at Merchant
Bank of
Africa
in 1991 and has worked in top managerial level at First City
Merchant Bank as Senior Manager and Assistant Vice President
between 1994 and 1999 from where he left for Standard Trust Bank
to take a more challenging post of a General Manager.
Fidelis Tilije’s managerial
capability and interest in the energy sector would be more
prominent this year especially as the sector is being liberalised.
At the beginning, it was a difficult task creating a niche
for the bank in the market. The
Management of the bank put their heads together and thought that
they needed a specific colour that will just give a little notice
of the bank anywhere it is located.
That is how the bank came about the skyblue and the green
colour. The bank chose
the cool colour to avoid appearing aggressive in the market, but
on the contrary, the colour combination has actually done a lot of
advertising for the bank.
In
furtherance of the bank’s plan for branch expansion, the bank
has applied to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for more
branches. As soon as the approval is given, the bank will reach
out to those areas that they don’t have any presence now.
The beauty of commercial banking is in the network which
enables the banks to reap the fruit of the system.
The
bank’s interest in the energy sector is very much emphasised in
its presence in Warri, Port-Harcourt and Calabar.
Yenogua, the capital of
Bayelsa
State
,
according to the MD/CEO of the bank is going to benefit from the
new branch network when that its starts to expand.
Uyo the capital of
Akwa-Ibom
State
is also going to benefit.
Fortune
Green Account, one of the products of the Bank is very well known
and accepted in the market. The
Institute
of
Marketing
of
Nigeria
in the year 2000 gave the bank an award for the Green Account as
the best selling product. Most
of the competing products in the market require some reasonable
initial deposit, but Fortune Green Account is targeted for the low
income group and with as little as N5,000.00 one can open an
account. It believes
banking should not be an elitist thing but for the general public
and that has been the philosophy of Fortune International Bank Plc
since they started operations.
The
MD/CEO of the bank said that they give God the glory for their
impressive performance so far.
He said that they have worked very hard and that
professionalism has been their watchword.
The bank’s management has gone into many strategic
sessions to look at the market, the kind of player they want to
be, the area where they need to concentrate effort and resources.
The biggest asset the bank has is their quality workforce.
The bank’s businesses are done on the table, not under
the table. Thus
everybody partakes in the process of decision making and when
everybody is carried along, the workforce feels happy and remain
committed to see through the decision, and this strategy has
worked very well for the bank.
In
the year 2001, the bank won the International Standard
Organisation (ISO) 9002 award for quality services to its esteemed
customers.
Newswatch Special Feature, Friday, 15 November 2002
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