Awards

Our Awards

With over 130 years of uninterrupted operation, FirstBank Group’s outstanding services have attracted innumerable recognitions and awards.

The Bank (FirstBank Group) was first listed on The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in March 1971 and won the NSE’s Annual President’s Merit Award for the best financial report in the banking industry a record thirteen times. This subsisting feat received an additional impetus when the Bank in 2011 was bestowed the “Best Financial Reporting Company” award by Africa Investor, one of Africa’s most respected multimedia investment news and information publishers.

In the same period, the Bank was named the “Most Innovative Bank in Africa” by African Banker Awards. This highly coveted award goes to the African bank that has demonstrated original and practical uses of technology to provide customer convenience, better and cheaper services, and greater access to the financial services industry in Africa.

The award, therefore, represents a global recognition of the giant strides the Bank has made over the years in deploying technology to power its operations and services and ultimately making banking services more convenient, accessible, and faster. These are major feats in the Bank’s customer-oriented and innovative financial services that confirm the Bank’s interest in promoting its customers’ lifestyles and businesses.

FirstBank Nigeria (the Group Headquarters) has been a back-to-back winner of the “Best Bank in Nigeria” for 12 years, “Best Trade Finance Bank in Nigeria”, and “Best Foreign Exchange Bank in Nigeria” for seven (7) consecutive years – all awarded by the US-based Global Finance magazine.

The Bank has also been awarded the “Best Bank in Nigeria” by the EMEA Finance magazine for four (4) consecutive years, “Best Banking Group in Nigeria”, awarded by World Finance Banking Awards, “Best Investment Bank” and “Best Private Bank” all awarded by the same institution, the latter which the Bank has received five (5) times. 

FirstBank also received the “ICT Telecoms Deal of the Year Award” awarded by the Ai CEO Infrastructure Awards 2012, a worthy recognition of the Bank’s role in the EMTS (Etisalat) US$650Million Syndicated Term Loan, 2011 and was named “The Bank of the Year in Nigeria” in The Banker Awards 2012.

Nigeria’s Number One Banking Brand, 2011 - 2016

For six consecutive years, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, FirstBank was named “Nigeria’s Number One Banking Brand” by Brand Finance Top 500 Banking Brands.

Best Retail Bank in Nigeria, 2011 - 2016

Best Retail Bank in Nigeria”, 2011, 2012 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 by the Asian Banker International Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards.

Best Bank in Nigeria, 2013

FirstBank was awarded the “Best Bank in Nigeria” in the Euromoney Awards for Excellence.

#Most Valuable Bank Brand in Nigeria, 2011 - 2016

For six consecutive years (2011 – 2016), FirstBank was named “Most Valuable Bank Brand in Nigeria” by the globally renowned The Banker Magazine of the Financial Times Group.

No.1, Top 100 Africa Bank, Nigeria, 2022

Top 100 African Bank rankings 2022 released by The Banker Magazine revealed FirstBank’s ranking as number one in Nigeria in terms of Overall Performance, Profitability, Efficiency and Return on Risk.

Market Leader, CSR & ESG

FirstBank’s international recognitions on major indices by Euromoney
Market Leaders, an independent global assessment of the leading financial service providers where FirstBank was crowned:

  • Market Leader: (tier-1 recognition) in Corporate and Social
    Responsibility CSR,
  • Market Leader: (tier 1 recognition) Environmental, Social and
    Governance ESG,
  • Highly Regarded: in Corporate Banking and Digital Solutions,
  • Notable: in SME Banking.

Fitch Rating

In 2022, the Bank took a long stride on its growth trajectory with the Bank’s Viability and Long-Term Issuer Default Ratings upgraded to ‘B’ from ‘B’ (with Outlooks Stable) by Fitch, a leading global rating agency. This is an indication of the Bank’s strong internal capital generation and corresponding recession of its risks to capitalisation. Fitch also upgraded the Bank’s National LongTerm Ratings to ‘A (nga)’ from ‘BBB (nga)’, to reflect its improved creditworthiness relative to that of other issuers.

Notably, the FirstBank Group received many awards and recognitions across its Sub-Saharan African subsidiaries: First Bank Ghana was awarded ‘’Best Commercial Banking Brand’’ and ‘’Best SME Banking Brand in Ghana’’ – 2022 by the prestigious Global Brands Awards.

They also received ‘’Award for 5-star in Service Quality 2022, Consumer Banking’’ and ‘’Award for 5-star in Service Quality, Business Banking’’ from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana, while FBNBank Senegal received the award of ‘’Fastest Growing Banking Brand in Senegal’’ from Global Brands Awards in the same year.

Other notable awards in the FirstBank Group coffers include: “Best Bank in Nigeria” by Global Finance Magazine – fifteen times in a row; “Best Private Bank in Nigeria 2022” awarded by Global Finance Magazine; “Best Internet Banking Nigeria” and ‘’Best CSR Bank Africa’’ by International Business Magazine.

FirstBank Guinea was awarded ‘’Best CSR Bank – Guinea’’ and ‘’Best Mobile Banking Brand – Guinea’’ by Global Brands Awards; First Bank Ghana also received the ‘’Banking Brand of the Year’’ Award by Ghana Business Awards and ‘’Ethical Business of the Year Award’’ by Ghana Business Integrity Awards.

FirstBank Guinea was awarded ‘’Best CSR Bank – Guinea’’ and ‘’Best Mobile Banking Brand – Guinea’’ by Global Brands Awards; First Bank Ghana also received the ‘’Banking Brand of the Year’’ Award by Ghana Business Awards and ‘’Ethical Business of the Year Award’’ by Ghana Business Integrity Awards.

More Awards

All these accolades attest to the FirstBank Group’s exceptional commitments to promoting national economic growth and development through constructive engagements with the public and private sectors of the growing African economy.

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