Zenith Bank Plc has continued to prove its mettle in Nigeria’s banking industry, maintaining its lead in many fronts to earn itself local and international recognitions.

Zenith Bank has been named the best commercial bank in Nigeria at the World Finance Banking Awards 2022, and also the Best Corporate Governance ‘Financial Services’ Africa 2021 by the Ethical Boardroom, for the second consecutive year.

World Finance Magazine presented the awards to the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive of Zenith Bank Plc, Ebenener Onyeagwu, at the London Stock Exchange yesterday, in recognition of the bank’s ability to embrace digital transformation and best-in-class sustainability and corporate governance practices, leading to a stellar business performance in a difficult economic climate.

Commenting on the awards, Onyeagwu praised the commitment of the bank’s management and staff to carry out its operations in line with global best practices.

“These awards reflect our strong business fundamentals, resilience and ability to adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of the market through our innovative solutions, as well as our commitment to global best practices. As a member and signatory to various domestic and international sustainability frameworks including the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria Sustainable Banking Principles, we continue to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by creating value for our shareholders, customers, clients, investors, communities and the environment through our practices, operations and investments.” he said.

A statement issued by the bank noted that it places a premium on its core business strategy anchored on People, Technology and Service, to create value for its numerous clientele. It said the tier-1 bank leverages its team of dedicated professionals, to harvest its robust Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure to provide cutting-edge solutions and products through its network of branches and electronic/digital channels.

The awards, which were published in the June 2021 edition of The Ethical Boardroom magazine, is in recognition of the bank’s adherence to global best practices and institutionalization of corporate governance, setting an industry-wide example of best practices in that field.

Zenith Bank has racked up several awards in recent years. The long list goes as follows: Zenith Bank was voted as Bank of the Year (Nigeria) in The Banker’s Bank of the Year Awards 2020, Best Bank in Nigeria in the Global Finance World’s Best Banks Awards 2020 and 2021, and Best Corporate Governance ‘Financial Services’ Africa 2020 by the Ethical Boardroom. Also, the bank emerged as the Most Valuable Banking Brand in Nigeria in the Banker Magazine Top 500 Banking Brands 2020 and 2021, and Number One Bank in Nigeria by Tier-1 Capital in the “2020 Top 1000 World Banks” Ranking by The Banker Magazine.

Similarly, the bank was recognised as Bank of the Decade (People’s Choice) at the ThisDay Awards 2020, Retail Bank of the year at the 2020 BusinessDay Banks and Other Financial Institutions (BOFI) Awards, and Best Company in Promotion of Good Health and Well-Being as well as Best Company in Promotion of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment at the Sustainability, Enterprise and Responsibility (SERAS) Awards 2020.

“Zenith Bank has been generally adjudged a Corporate Governance compliant bank by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) hence its listing on the Premium Board of the Exchange. The bank continues to sustain this reputation and reappraise its processes to ensure that its business conforms to the highest global standards at all times,” the bank said in a statement.

It took the paralysis created by Russia’s war in Ukraine for many veils to be lifted on cryptocurrency investment (not as a means of exchange of value). Yes, with inflation skyrocketing and interest rates jumping,  the world of cryptocurrency which was built on “decentralization” has simply demonstrated that it is nothing but a big part of our centralized world.

Indeed, if you need Naira, US dollars, etc to buy cryptos, the implication is this: if you cannot find those Naira, USD, etc, cheaply, cryptos will struggle. And as that happens, because of high interest rates, other asset classes (treasury bills, fixed deposits)  in the centralized world become enticing to investors. Magically, BTC investment becomes less optimal when other options are evaluated.  In the end, BTC has been centralized where it matters: allocation of funds to asset classes.

As that rages, Meta (Facebook’s parent company) has seen enough and is shutting down Novi! This showdown is not coming from regulatory activism or lawmakers fiat instructions. Rather, this is a pure play market force in action. And Meta might have done it since the exuberance of a decentralized currency has been stymied by a centralizing inflationary paralysis.

As the cryptocurrency industry nosedives further, plummeting investors’ funds and crippling the market’s value along the way, companies in the industry are being confronted with the tough decision of whether to stay in business or shut down operations.

The headwinds that have forced leading crypto asset bitcoin to stay below and a little above $20,000 dollars, is also forcing many institutions’ crypto-linked operations to shut down. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been caught in the wind.

Facebook expects a recession and it is phasing out many products while hiking performance for workers: ‘You might decide this place isn’t for you, and that’s OK with me’.

Facebook parent Meta is cutting back on hiring and turning up the heat on its employees as slow growth and macroeconomic headwinds push the company to downgrade its economic outlook.

In a weekly employee Q&A session on Thursday, the social media giant’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg told employees that Meta is reducing its plans to hire engineers by at least 30% this year. Citing the market downturn and the looming recession, Zuckerberg said Meta will now only hire around 6,000 to 7,000 new engineers in 2022—a stark drop from its initial plan to hire more than 10,000.

Facebook’s Parent, META, is Shutting Down its Novi Crypto Wallet

As the cryptocurrency industry nosedives further, plummeting investors’ funds and crippling the market’s value along the way, companies in the industry are being confronted with the tough decision of whether to stay in business or shut down operations.

The headwinds that have forced leading crypto asset bitcoin to stay below and a little above $20,000 dollars, is also forcing many institutions’ crypto-linked operations to shut down. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been caught in the wind.

Meta is shutting down Novi, its cryptocurrency digital wallet. Bloomberg made the report citing a notice where the company announced it would sunset the platform on September 1st, with July 20th being the final day to add funds.

The decision marks another premature end to Meta’s bid to delve into crypto. The company’s first attempt at it was Libra, a huge crypto project that Meta had partnered with several other institutions to develop. But it met the government’s resistance and was forced to wind down.

According to the report, Meta advised users to withdraw their balance “as soon as possible,” as it would “attempt to transfer” any remaining money to customer bank accounts and debit cards after Novi’s final day of operation.

The social media behemoth began the pilot of Novi last October, but has failed to grow past the beginner’s phase as the crypto crash takes a toll. But it didn’t use a new Diem or Libra token. Per Bloomberg, Novi ended up using Paxos Trust Co.’s USDP stablecoin to allow wallet users from parts of the U.S. and Guatemala to conduct transactions while Coinbase Global Inc. safeguarded the funds.

But not minding the failures that have characterized its attempts at cryptocurrency operations, Meta said it’s going to give it another shot.

“We are already leveraging the years spent on building capabilities for Meta overall on blockchain and introducing new products, such as digital collectibles,” a company spokesperson told Bloomberg. “You can expect to see more from us in the web3 space because we are very optimistic about the value these technologies can bring to people and businesses in the metaverse.”

Per Engadget, the company announced last month that it was rebranding Facebook Pay to Meta Pay, a move CEO Mark Zuckerberg described as a “first step” toward creating a digital wallet for the metaverse.

However, Novi’s shutdown is a big one among many, highlighting the consequential realities of the crypto market’s crash. Notable crypto exchange platforms are deeply immersed in the dip, forcing some to file for bankruptcy. To make the matter worse, there is no working to pull the industry back to the bull market.

Many business founders tend to prioritize cash flow in the day-to-day operations of their businesses. The cash flow craze probably stems from a general belief that businesses are out to make money and keep an impressive financial record. But is cash flow all there is about building a sustainable and enduring business?

According to a report by the Small Business Administration cited in Investopedia, 20 percent of small businesses fail in the first year, 50 percent fold up after five years and 67 percent find it difficult to persist further than the first 10 years.  The most common reasons start-ups fail were identified as; lack of funding, inability to retain talents and build a strong management team, faulty business model, unsuccessful marketing initiatives, etc. Thus, from the foregoing, it is clear that cash flow is one of several reasons a business can survive the test of time.

It is not out of place to think that a business founded on a philosophy of making money rather than creating wealth is dead on arrival. ‘’…a company is not just a balance sheet. The successful company is no longer one that just makes money’’ argues Andre Hoffman, the Vice Chairman of Roche Holding Limited.

In one of his digital execution for business growth lectures, Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe, lead faculty at Tekedia Institute and Harvard Business Review contributor, notes that a business must develop because it aims to solve existing market friction (the demand-supply gap). According to the professor, ‘’in the quest to bridge a market friction, business owners need to build the capacity to do so by attracting investors and creating a formidable structure and team that will position the enterprise to solve the identified problems and thus contribute to the national wealth.’’

However, experiences have shown how a number of start-ups are able to attract funding in their early years due to the ability of the founders to cash in on trends and communicate market problems and opportunities to investors but soon have to take on accumulated debt as they are unable to push through market resistance due to weak internal structure.

Having a strong management structure is predictive of a start-up’s ability to continue operations well into the future. Without a good structure, the likelihood of a business manifesting misplaced priorities, mismanagement of finances and human resources, and other symptoms of a failing business is high.

In a diagnostic report of the early failure signals of agritech start-ups in Nigeria by FIDAS Africa, structural problems were identified as a major source of pain to agritech start-ups in Nigeria. In the analysis, elements such as people, profit, portfolio, result-oriented, and organization-inclined were used to appraise ten agritech start-ups in Nigeria. It was found that there is a wide gap between the profit element and people, result-oriented and organizational-inclined elements of these organizations.

It was also found that the start-ups have a very low potential for creating and delivering value to stakeholders due to a weak alignment between their vision and mission statements. The vision and the mission statements of the companies aligned by 28.5%; only 8.1% of the vision statements were found in the mission statements.

The study further reveals that while companies believe in positioning people for creating and capturing value, they tend to pay less attention to how the people would generate profits through their portfolios. There is also an indication that companies are more interested in markets, products, and survival while there is least concern for employees, public image, technologies, and philosophy.

Referencing the law of physics that states that the force of a given object is determined by its mass and acceleration (F = ma), Professor Ekekwe notes that for start-ups or businesses of any scale to build the necessary force to win over the market, they must ensure a balance in their weight (numbers of personnel) and acceleration (employees’ engagement and acquired competencies and skills).