Lagos — The pervasive feeling amongst the citizens of this country is that banks and bankers are the culprits in the crime against the nation’s economy. This notion is hinged on the belief that in spite of the parlous state of the economy, banks have continued to declare huge profits. Nothing demonstrates the resentment of the Nigerian public towards the banking sector more than the recent carpeting of the Central Bank Governor, Dr. Joseph Sanusi by the National Assembly when he was invited to make clarifications on CBN policies with particular reference to foreign exchange (FOREX) transactions of which the CBN is accused of not applying enough sanctions on erring banks.
As far as the legislators and by implication the people they represent are concerned, the orchestrated financial crimes of FOREX round-tripping, which the banking industry has recently been associated with has singled them out as demagogues who must be obliterated from the financial horizon in Nigeria. Apparently prompted by the legislators’ umbrage, the CBN has now set up a committee of bank Chief Executives to address the issue of FOREX malpractice amongst banks. Although FOREX round-tripping is hardly the only ailment the economy is suffering from, banks have consistently been singled out for knocking. With a balance sheet of N2 trillion and a whopping one trillion as local currency deposit, the banking sub-sector is undoubtedly a prime factor in the economic development quotient of the country. Naturally, a sector with such an overriding influence would attract reprehension when the economy is performing below expectations. Nevertheless, the negative perception of the sub-sector indicates a communication gap between the banking institution in Nigeria and its various publics especially the customers whom the resentful legislators represent. This view is underscored by the fact that the banking sub-sector has not deemed it fit to make the public aware in a co-ordinated manner that besides FOREX, banks are playing other roles that are fundamental and germane to the economic development of Nigeria.
As a rule, there is a body of chief executives of banks under the auspices of the Central Bank of Nigeria known as Bankers Committee. This gathering of banking gurus meet on monthly basis to deliberate on matters affecting the banking subsector. In apparent response to the negative perception of banks and their role in the society, Bankers Committee of its own volition two years ago decided to contribute 10% of its profit before tax, PBT towards the development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) which bank critics have persistently singled out as a sector that banks has been starving of funding. While the scheme is already being implemented, with over N5 billion so far raised, public perception of banking and bankers is yet to change for the better. The fact that this gesture from the Bankers Committee which is more or less a master stroke is yet to give the banking institution a respite, is another indication that in matters relating to the banking sub-sector and the larger society, there is indeed a yawning communication gap to be addressed.
Regrettably, despite the universal acknowledgement of communication as an efficacious tool for shaping public perception, the banking institution as a collective body seems not to have awakened to the reality of using communication to change the negative perception of banking and bankers. For instance, the banking sub-sector has not systematically enlightened the populace about its efforts at rejuvenating the near comatose SME sector earlier mentioned; it has also not structured and pushed into the public arena, the fact that an average bank invests as much as N500million in the acquisition of IT components such as VSAT to enhance efficiency which translates into the huge profits being declared; neither did it make concerted efforts to inform the public that an average bank is capitalised with at least two billion naira as opposed to less than one billion naira which a large manufacturing concern is capitalised with, and based on the business principle of adequate Return On Investments, ROI, banks are expected to earn income that is commensurate with the huge capital outlay which shareholders have invested in establishing them.
Furthermore, the sub-sector is yet to educate the public on the fact that the so-called democracy dividends reflected in the new schools, markets, roads, healthcare facilities, improved telecoms as in GSM, and independent power projects (IPP) being executed across the country by State Governments are indeed facilitated and even sometimes conceptualised by banks who provide the funds often times, even before the State Governments receive their monthly revenue allocation from the federation account.
How about social responsibility gestures such as donations running into millions of naira regularly reported in banks’ annual reports of which the banking institutions never bother to aggregate the total value annually and communicate same to the public. This is in addition to the public parks and sundry places that banks have beautified at high cost for the well-being of the people. Just suffice it to say the avenues through which the banking institution has contributed to the growth and development of the society are too numerous to list here but all these efforts go unmentioned in the media which the public incidentally use in forming their opinion.
So owing to the dearth of positive information such as the ones listed above, the public is compelled to form its opinion on banking and bankers only on FOREX misdemeanor which is reported copiously in the mass media.
Interestingly, there is hardly any bank in Nigeria that does not have a Corporate Communications department whose responsibility it is to articulate and push out positive information via specific communication tool for the benefit of the organisations they serve. Infact, there is an association of Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks referred to as ACAMB. That body, I believe, has as part of its objectives, the duty of managing the collective image of the banking institution in Nigeria. It is difficult to tell why ACAMB seems not to be up to the task.
But I can easily hazard a guess. Many banks, albeit organisations regard Corporate Communications departments as mere cost centres rather than strategic business departments. They therefore treat the departments with little consideration ignoring the competitive advantage characterised by the goodwill which they provide. This view is nurtured because many do not see the big picture which presents the Corporate Communications departments as a veritable support department for all the other departments of a bank. This failure to fully appreciate the role of Corporate Communications departments by some executives is perhaps the reason ACAMB members are reluctant or having a difficult time convincing their bosses of the role ACAMB could play in giving the image of the banking institution in particular and the reputation of bankers in general the desired boost.
I’m particularly intrigued by the fact that most Bankers Committee members who have applied communication tools effectively to uplift the status of their banks and most ACAMB members who have equally risen to the pinnacle of their careers through the effective use of communication tools appear not to see the need or seem reluctant to apply the same tools for the collective interest of the banking institution in Nigeria. Commentators have listed bad blood in the subsector as the culprit citing the release of fake lists of purportedly distressed banks to the media as examples of unwholesome attitude amongst banks and bankers
This apparent mistrust resulting from selfish interest of some of the executives in the banking sub- sector in my considered opinion is basically the reason the image of the banking institution and the reputation of bankers are still stuck in the mud. Happily, the situation is not unsalvageable as the institution can embark on a campaign to redeem its sagging image.
Media campaign to solicit or re-ignite interest in a course, activity or industry is not limited to banks. Incidentally, there is currently a campaign by American Travel Associations on CNN urging Americans to get on the airplanes and travel again. The campaign became necessary after the industry witnessed a drop as a consequence of the September 11 terrorist crashing of passenger airplanes into the World Trace Centre (WTC) in New York and Pentagon in Washington D.C. respectively. Back home in Nigeria, organised petroleum marketers in the wake of petroleum scarcity also deployed marketing communication tools to achieve positive perception of the association as the media blitz succeeded in laying the blame for the scarcity on the doorstep of economic saboteurs who vandalise oil pipelines to siphon fuel etc.
At this juncture, it is perhaps pertinent to point out that the ill feeling which the public is currently visiting on the banking sub-sector did not suddenly come into being. It has indeed been lingering since the bank crash of the 1990s. The recent occurrences in the banking sub-sector with regards to FOREX infractions etc. only helped bring the hatred to the fore.
Considering the magnitude of the distress of that time and the subsequent collapse of as many as forty (40) banks, it is an indictment on the banking sub-sector, that it has not considered it necessary to revalidate the image and reputation of banking/bankers in the eyes of its publics when things returned to normal. Rather it simply went back to business as usual. In my considered opinion, this lapse is neither because they treat their public image with levity nor that their customers are deliberately being taken for granted. Rather it is a reflection of the fact that in spite of the hullabaloo about the large number of banks in Nigeria, the Nigerian public is actually too starved of banking services that they just couldn’t wait to embrace the sub-sector whole-heartedly again. But with the current intense competition in the sub-sector, particularly with the entrance of foreign banks such as Standard Chartered and others that are planning to set up shop in Nigeria as well as other non-bank financial services, the banking institution, as a collective body must do well to review its present complacent approach and consider a more savvy attitude to image and reputation management.
The experience of the organised petroleum marketers in Nigeria and American Travel Association in constructively engaging in communication activities to shore-up interest in their services is instructive to the Banking Institution in Nigeria which obviously needs that therapy for its image and reputation which are currently at their lowest ebb to be bolstered again.