By Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK
One of the country’s “big four” banks, Bank Windhoek was recently placed amongst the seven short-listed candidates for the African Bank of the Year Award.
The bank was also the only bank in Southern African to be short-listed for the continent’s most prestigious award held in Washington DC last Thursday, where Ecobank Transnational took top honours.
The other five banks on the shortlist were Access Bank Plc, Intercontinental Bank, State Bank of Mauritius, United Bank for Africa Plc and Zenith Bank.
Bank Windhoek’s Managing Director James Hill yesterday expressed satisfaction with the bank’s achievement.
“It is a remarkable achievement for a Namibian bank to be a finalist in this prestigious category of African Bank of the Year in which we competed against leading financial institutions across Africa.”
He added: “Our efforts to make banking more accessible and affordable for all Namibians and our commitment to constantly innovate were recognized by our peers. We are proud of this achievement and realize that the support of our strategic partners and loyal clients made this possible.”
Apart from the “African Bank of the Year” category, awards were also presented in the categories: The Banker of the Year; The Most Innovative Bank, Award for Gender Sensitivity; Deal of the Year; Investment Bank in Africa; Emerging Global Bank in Africa; and Best Investment Bank in Africa.
The first ever-African Banker Awards is an initiative of the African Banker Magazine.
“It is in recognition of the sterling work done by all those involved in Africa’s financial sector that we are representing these awards. We hope they inspire and encourage our bankers to aim for even greater degrees of excellence,” Anver Versi, the Editor of the African Banker Magazine said.
The organisers invited banks operating in Africa to submit entries for the different categories of the African Banker Awards and Bank Windhoek submitted its entry for the “Bank of the Year Award”.