BY Joseph Edgar

The first time GTB announced N1 Billion profits, I was still working as an investment banker at Investment One Financials.

I remember that milestone very well.

The stockbrokers bounded into the office from the floor of the stock exchange and announced it and the buy mandates went into frenzy.

The research team had already made the predictions but its actual happening was historic.

Today, they hit another milestone being the first bank to hit the N1trillion mark but this time the announcement threw them into a turbulence of doubts, raised eyebrows and cynicism.

Immediately, a volley of unsubstantiated allegations began to appear in the gutter blogs with comments that a few hold but remain far afraid to throw out.

Now let’s focus on the N1trillion profit. But first let me confess, I have not seen the financials and as such cannot speak in detail about its mechanics.

But over the top, let me say that in such a depressed economy with floundering GDP, losses and shutdowns by major players, inflation galloping, depressed purchasing powers, this kind of result will be very hard to swallow and yes will throw up a major push back.

Now GTB is not the only one in this situation as UBA has just announced its own and I am sure my people at Access will soon follow suit, so it’s a systemic issue.

Now, let me also state again that in a ‘paddy paddy’ regulatory environment like this and in an economy like this, margins are crazy so a serious operator like the banks would spot opportunities and grab them very quickly.

This is what they call distress investing and our economy is rife for it and that is why you see Indians, Chinese and Russians rush in because of the weak integrity ratios and below par institutional corporate governance.

So GTB made a tactical error arresting and taking to court, bloggers who although were irresponsible in their actions were still giving GTB an opportunity to better explain in layman’s terms their results.

A Bank with a huge retail customer base especially one with a strong play in the tech driven retail market should never go to war with media, talk less of bloggers who will better engage the digital community than whatever GTB will throw at them.

It’s like going to war with a swarm of bees, how do you contain?

For me that was a knee jerk reaction showing panic and being jittery. They should have ridden it through, and it would have gone away.

So GTB made a tactical error arresting and taking to court, bloggers who although were irresponsible in their actions were still giving GTB an opportunity to better explain in layman’s terms their results.

GTB is such a strong brand that the market gives it the benefit of the doubt, so they should have fallen on their immense goodwill to ignore those miscreants.

But that action threw skepticism into the market, making people wonder why Opay has been the butt of even more vicious internet attacks but to the best of my knowledge, I don’t think anybody has been remanded by them.

Tolerance, strategy and pristine engagement are the key words.

Now, last night a vicious attack was launched not only on GTB but on its very powerful MD who I didn’t know until yesterday, his other name was Julius.

As I watched the video, I quickly noticed something; Major Mainstream media from NTA to Arise TV and all judging from their microphones were in attendance but as at the time of my writing, I have not seen a major coverage on any of these mainstream media so the promoters went on YouTube which had hit over 10,000 views by the time I was watching.

What these tells me is that the PR team at GTB are doing a beautiful job, holding this down and for that I say well-done guys.

Now to the content of the attack? What I saw was a personal vendetta against Julius by this person and in Shomolu parlance we will ask – ‘Segun, you thief him wife?’

As I watched, I could see pure hatred and a need to take Segun down as a person and for me, he lost me there.

This was personal masked under other saintly reasons.

Asking for his arrest, suspension and all, for me watered down his submission which in effect were just a rehash of events and occurrences that were already in the public space and have already been reported by GTB to its stakeholders.

Even though according to his vituperations which I confirmed by quick research, GTB paying almost 10% of all fines charged in the UK for the year mentioned was just a little bit much for me to swallow.

I would also say that fines are part of banking, and no serious player globally has gone without being fined at one time or the other

So, for that point, oga missed it. So, if you remove the fines from his allegations, he is left naked with his personal vendetta because there is truly nothing else there.

All that talk of terrorism funding, money laundry is just throwing everything plus the kitchen sink at Julius out of frustration and that is imbecilic if you ask me.

He has called for all the authorities in the world including the Israeli intelligence community to come and investigate GTB and has also called for the immediate close down of all GTB operations outside of Nigeria with immediate effect, another imbecilic and frustrated move.

This is also reckless and irresponsible to say the least.

GTB is such an important global player and as such we must be very careful as to how we engage it in things like this.

If this thoughtless push is not nipped now, it would have very serious implications on the banking system in Nigeria and by extension the economy because of the key strategic importance of GTB.

I do not support the call, I do not support the press conference, I think its an irresponsible move aimed at blackmail and as such should be ignored by all right-thinking people.

But that said, GTB and its regulators must hereby start fighting back for its integrity not by arrest and remanding in prison but by transparently engaging the markets and explaining point by point each of these allegations.

I will restrain myself from giving them my full endorsement for now, but let me say this at this point, I think GTB is suffering from its pioneering status in the area of its profitability, its size and the role it is playing in the system.

I think it stand out performance and phenomenal growth as expectedly hit on some raw nerves hence all these crises.

From the Innoson imbroglio, to its in-house internet leaks, to this, GTB continues to suffer pioneer risks.

It must then begin to deploy more strategic re-engagement with the markets and its image

Firstly, Julius must now begin to be more people oriented. His image as an aloof and seemingly arrogant personality just may be contributing to this problem

Segun must realize that playing at the level he is playing, there are different societal expectations away from the ‘powerman’ visage that we are seeing.

He must be relatable, affable and show a lot of empathy in business and in relations .

Too many people have cried out of transactions with GTB. Its not everything you win. Some you let go. Wipe off some debts especially the little ones or the ones that have come from job loss, deaths and the rest.

With N1trillion profit, you can do that. A more humane GTB is a very strong buffer against all of these.

Finally, I stand very strongly with GTB for NOW because I do not really see any depth just yet with these allegations and until then, let Julius rest abeg.

Thank you.

• Joseph Edgar, also known as The Duke of Shomolu, is an expert investment banker with over 30 years of cognate experience, specializing in strategy and business development. He is a seasoned stockbroker who has traded on the floor of the Lagos Stock Exchange, now known as the NGX.

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