We have cleaned up our books– Otti, GMD, Diamond Bank

Dr. Alex Otti, the Group Managing Director of Diamond Bank, can easily be described as someone who eats, breathes and lives banking, although it was not his first choice of career. He distinctly said: “Banking is what I do, but I did not set out to be a banker even though I read Economics.” According to him, his first job was teaching. The job excited his dad but he wanted to try other things and, eventually, came to banking.

Barely one year after he took over the leadership of the Diamond Bank, Dr. Otti said the institution has gone through its internal reforms of cleaning up it’s books and had started 2012 on a very good note.

In this interview with Daily Sun, he described the bank as leader in innovation in technology, saying Diamond Bank has acquired the necessary technology to drive business in the area of small, medium enterprise, an effort which, he said, is to complement President Goodluck Jonathan’s vision of growing the economy and empowering the people.

The chief executive, who was recently honoured with a Doctor of Science (D.Sc) degree for his outstanding performance in the academic and financial sector, affirmed that Diamond Bank is very healthy, founded on ethics of financial integrity and professionalism. He said: “We want to do a whole lot of that to be a very efficient electronic driven bank, more efficient and stable than we are today.”
Excerpts:

I am currently the CEO of Diamond Bank Group. Before now, I worked in different institutions in the banking industry; First Bank, UBA and a few others, including Citibank, where I started. I read Economies and graduated in 1988 from the University of Port Harcourt, as the best graduating student; had an MBA from the University of Lagos in 1994 and other prestigious institutions. In addition to receiving an honorary doctorate degree in Business Administration, I am alumnus of Harvard Business School. I also trained at Stanford Business School, California; Wharton Business School (University of Pennsylvania) and Columbia Business School, New York, just to name a few.

This recent recognition from the University of Port Harcourt, which is important to me, though this is not the first time I am getting an honorary degree, but this time it is my alma mater recognizing me and, if you know how it works, it’s not all the time your parents feel that you are grown up. So, I am excited about that opportunity because it is a recognition, and I thank the university for the honour accorded me. I have served on the board of several companies, and presently sits on the Governing Council of two Nigerian universities – University of Port Harcourt and Babcock University.

I have been very much interested in the progress of the university from the private sector perspective, but I am not too sure that I have done enough. Perhaps, this is a calling now for me to do more. I have done a lot of things in the academic world, and I am still interested in them. By the time I am done with banking job, I will pick up the chalk to teach in the university. I believe that is the best thing to do and I believe the university will benefit a whole lot more, when people who have practiced in different industry bring the practical perspective, together with the theoretical, then the students will benefit a lot more. I’ve been married to Prescilia for 18 years and we have three wonderful children. I like to listen to music, play my squash and travel.

How did you come into banking, any regrets?
When I graduated from the university, I went for my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in the banking industry. The banking sector was exploding at that time, it was the era of Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) and that was when a lot of new banks were springing up. I was also interested in banking, having read Economics, just like I was interested in other things during my service. I found that Citibank, in those days, was arranging and organizing interview for people who had 2:1 and above.

I sat for the test and passed, went through the interview process and I was hired to do my Youth Service in the bank and, after the service, I was retained in 1989. Banking is what I do. Though I read Economics, I did not set out to be a banker. It was a difficult decision then because, at that same time, the same university I graduated from had indicated that I could come and do my NYSC and begin my Masters programme and, of course, teach as a graduate assistant. That was the job my father was excited about, and I was to disappoint him for the first time. He was very unhappy about that decision.

There were other issues then. I had a scholarship to do my Masters at the University of Leeds, and a University in Canada. Then I had a job from the then Arthur Andersen, of which a part is now KPMG; and the other, Accenture, but I chose to remain in Citibank for a whole a lot of reasons. I liked the environment; an American bank, and I also liked the money, which was like two times what Arthur Andersen was offering me. With the banking profession, I have no regrets. There would have been challenges left, right and center, which usually comes with anything you are doing in life. It is not that challenges will not come, but the most important thing is been able to surmount them...and move on. And so far, so good, I’ve been able to weather the storms.

You came into Diamond Bank at a time of severe reforms of the Nigeria financial sector. How has this impacted on your management over the past one year?
Well, if you read the just published annual report, you will know that we have gone through our own internal reforms in this one year. It is still early days, but a whole lot of things have happened and these reforms have a lot to do with global economic crisis and the resolution of the crisis. Maybe we didn’t start or do the things we should have done early, but I can tell you that as I speak, we have done a lot in terms of the cleaning up our books.

We have finished with that at the end of the financial year 2011 and we have started 2012 on a very good note. These challenges are not specific to Diamond Bank alone, it comes to virtually every other bank in the industry, and not just in Nigeria alone but globally. You are also aware of banks that failed; very big ones that were ‘too big to fail’. I think we have confronted the challenges and we are coming out stronger.

How would you assess the impact of Diamond Bank’s investment in the Nigerian SME’s, vis-à-vis President Jonathan’s economic transformation agenda?

We pride ourselves as the leaders in the SME space, when you look at what is happening elsewhere in the Nigerian banking industry. That is not to underestimate the challenges existing in that space but what we have done, taken the lesson we have to learnt, and also bringing in the skills we needed, and the proposition that this space requires. We have been able to do a whole a lot in terms of lending; a very large chunk of our lending in that space. We have taken the lessons at some point; had some challenges, and we have cleaned them up.