FirstBank at 131: Valuable lessons for businesses seeking to enable positive impacts

SEVENTY percent of Nigerian family businesses do not survive beyond the first generation (BusinessDay). That leaves a small number of longstanding businesses that current business owners in Nigeria who desire to have their businesses continue for many generations after them can turn to for Nigeria-specific lessons and inspiration to build businesses that last for generations, making positive impacts.

A generation, going by various classifications and definitions, ranges from 20 to 30 years. When you Google or ask AI and ChatGPT for businesses in Nigeria that have been around for the greatest number of generations, you are provided a very short list.

On that short list are less than 10 well-known businesses that have crossed the 100-year mark and are still growing strong. One hundred years represents three to five generations depending on which figure, between 20 and 30 (years), that you use to divide 100 years.

If you use 20 (years) as denominator, you find that only two well-known businesses in Nigeria are in their sixth generation (at least 120 years old) and only one is halfway on its journey to its seventh. Founded in 1894, First Bank of Nigeria, which is Nigeria’s first evidence and example that our economy can support our own centenarian businesses, celebrated its 131st anniversary on 31st March 2025 as an institution with a legacy of nation-building, solid relationships, good corporate governance and a strong liquidity position.

Having marked so many anniversaries and crossed its sixth generation, anniversary celebrations at this digital banking giant which is the premier bank in West Africa, have become less and less about the bank and more and more about its legacies. They have become annual occasions to highlight to other businesses how they can operate sustainably and impactfully in Nigeria by carefully following the FirstBank example.

Many valuable lessons can be unpacked from the way that the entity called FirstBank has operated that other businesses can draw inspiration from. However, only a few lessons will be discussed here, given the limited number of columns allowed in a feature article of this nature.

Lesson number one is the essential idea of putting the customer first. As simple as this may seem, it is the hardest thing to do. So many business founders and managers put themselves and their narrow interests ahead of the customers’.

They may have well-crafted vision and mission statements that speak to customer-centricity, but those are merely to tick a box in the business school guidelines they have copied and do not reflect how they operate on a day-to-day basis. This is not the case at FirstBank which has demonstrated to generations and generations of customers that the first in its name belongs to them.

With core values encapsulated by the acronym EPIC – which stands for Entrepreneurship, Professionalism, Innovation and Customer-centricity – FirstBank puts the customer at the heart of its operations. The bank is committed to fulfilling its brand promise to always “deliver the ultimate ‘gold standard’ of value and excellence to position [the customer] first in every respect.”

There is something magical about putting the customer first. It drives entrepreneurship, professionalism and innovation. Because you place the customer first, you seek to be more enterprising than others in managing the systems you have in place to serve the customer. You also seek to be more professional than others in the constant battle to win and retain the heart and mind of the customer.

And you are ever in pursuit of innovation so your customer will be the first to experience every improvement or better system that becomes available in your ecosystem. You see your role in the life and business of the customer as a partner who is pioneering progress that will both empower them and advance their interests.

Next lesson is the idea of spreading the benefits. If you have achieved resounding success in serving one group of customers in certain respects, you should take the next most logical step of expanding operations to cover other groups of customers and other respects.

That is exactly what FirstBank has done and today, what began as a Nigerian franchise has been established across the three continents of Africa, Europe and Asia. FirstBank is now serving customers in the three continents through more than 820 business offices. These customers maintain over 42 million customer accounts (including digital wallets) spread across Nigeria, UK and sub-Saharan Africa.

In Africa, FirstBank has now made available through its subsidiaries in other African markets the bespoke financial services that Nigerians have enjoyed for 13 decades so the peoples of The Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, The Gambia, Guinea (Conakry), Senegal and Sierra Leone can share in the same financial offerings. Europe benefits from the same bespoke offerings through FirstBank UK Limited in London with a representative office in Paris, France.

Asia draws from the same pool through a FirstBank Representative Office in Beijing, China. All the subsidiaries in these foreign markets are engaged in international cross-border transactions with the two representative offices (in Paris and Beijing) involved in facilitating trade flows from Asia and Europe into Africa, with Nigeria benefitting the most.

From its bricks-and-mortar origin where in-branch banking was all there was to banking, FirstBank is today leading the way in digital banking. In its drive to champion digital payments in Nigeria, the bank has issued over 13 million cards to customers – a feat it was the first to achieve. Its digital channels currently have about 23 million active customers signed up on the various platforms, including its USSD quick banking service popularly called by its *894# banking code.

As the leading financial inclusion services provider in Africa, FirstBank is delivering banking services in unbanked and underbanked areas through its over 233,500 agent locations spread across 772 of Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Areas. Customers in these areas enjoy the same benefits made possible by FirstBank’s consistent investment in technology to drive innovation and transformation.

In terms of other respects, FirstBank diversified into pension fund custody services in Nigeria, nominee and associated services, insurance brokerage and capital market services. These services are delivered through First Pension Custodian Nigeria Limited, First Nominees Nigeria Limited, FBN Insurance Brokers and FBNQuest Capital. These businesses draw their inspiration from the 13-decade-old legacy of trust established by the mother brand, FirstBank.

Third lesson: pursue inclusivity and diversity. No one person knows or has it all and so we all benefit from what others bring to the table. This is as much about the power of a team as it is about the benefit of an inclusive and diverse team. FirstBank would never have made it to 131 years without committing to policies, partnerships and initiatives that foster diversity and inclusivity.

An equal opportunity employer who does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, tribe, religion or disability, FirstBank is open to receive everyone and the contributions that come from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Through its deliberate implementation of its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, the bank has today achieved an employee ratio of 39% female to 61% male with women holding 32% of positions in management.

The bank champions a FirstBank Women Network, which is an initiative through which it addresses the gender gap in order to increase women participation at all levels within the bank.  The initiative is further boosted by the bank’s membership of the women body of the United Nations Organisation, UN Women. The bank ensures it delivers on its commitment to the UN Women’s women empowerment principles (WEPs) of equal opportunity, inclusion and non-discrimination.

Lesson number four: think community, think nation-building. No company makes a positive impact if all it concerns itself with is itself, making profits and making more and more profits for itself alone. There would be no FirstBank and its outsized impact in society today if the bank was not thinking community and nation-building right from its early days.

Consider these: FirstBank’s devotion to nation-building predates Nigeria’s independence. In 1947, FirstBank advanced the first long-term loan to the then colonial government and in 1955, it partnered with the government to expand the railway lines. As far back as 1978, it was already at the forefront of advancing human capacity development with programmes such as national essay competitions to foster intellectual development and hone writing skills in students of Nigerian tertiary institutions, started its university endowment programme in 1994 and initiated an annual senior secondary school quiz competition in 2003.

In terms of longstanding support to businesses across all sectors, no other bank boasts the history and testimonies customers who have been positively impacted by FirstBank are happy to share with those who care to listen. The first GSM wireless network was bankrolled by FirstBank. The bank led in the financing of the privatisation of the power sector, funding the acquisition of power plants that are today contributing thousands of megawatts to Nigeria’s national grid. Manufacturers from FMCG companies to pharmaceuticals and cement producers have had a robust relationship with FirstBank, banking on its support to expand their facilities, extend business lines and boost productions to meet local and international demands for their goods.

Nigeria’s agricultural sector has known no better bank supporter than FirstBank for as long as most economic analysts can remember. As premier financier of the sector, FirstBank has committed hundreds of billions of naira to fund procurement of seeds, fertilisers, other farm inputs and equipment that have been critical to Nigeria’s agricultural development till date. Many farmers and agropreneurs stand ready to share their stories of the difference FirstBank’s support has made in their endeavours.

FirstBank understands the huge responsibility its history with Nigeria and the trust Nigerians place in it impose on it as a foremost corporate citizen. The bank continues to see its story as the Nigerian story because, since its inception in 1894, its impact has been woven into the fabric of the Nigerian society. The FirstBank story cannot be told without Nigeria and Nigeria’s story cannot be told without FirstBank and its legacies of positive impacts.

As alluded to earlier, there are, of course, many other lessons to explore from the sustainable and impactful way FirstBank operates that can be covered in the limited number of columns this feature article allows for. So, it is incumbent on readers, especially business founders and managers who aspire to be the next Sir Alfred Jones (the shipping magnate from Liverpool, England, who founded the bank in 1894 and must be looking on with pride from his grave at the positive impact the bank continues to make long after his demise) to go beyond this article. Google, AI and ChatGPT are available to take them on a knowledge journey through the many legacies of the entity called FirstBank and how it has carried on sustainably and impactfully for 13 whole decades.

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