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Polaris Bank wins Nigeria’s Best Digital Bank of the Year Award, third time in a row
Photo caption:
Nduneche Ezurike, Group Head, Brand Mngt & Corporate Communication; Bukola Oluyadi, Group Head, Customer Xperience & Value Mngt; Dele Adeyinka, Divisional Head, Retail & Digital Banking; Frank Aigbogun, BusinessDay Publisher; Rasheed Bolarinwa, Head, Corporate Communication; Peter Daniel, Head, Digital Bank & Anthony Aina, Business Analyst, Corporate Banking at the prestigious BusinessDay BAFI Awards Ceremony in Lagos on Saturday where Polaris Bank was adjudged ‘Digital Bank of the Year’ & ‘MSME Bank of the Year 2023’. Photo: Polaris Bank
Polaris Bank shone over the weekend as its bespoke home-grown digital bank, VULTe won for the third time, Nigeria’s ‘Best Digital Bank of the Year’ prize at the prestigious BusinessDAY’s Banks And Other Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards.
Polaris Bank also scooped ‘Best MSME Bank of the Year’ award at the same event.
VULTe, is a digital banking platform designed to enable customers to consummate every banking transactions – from account opening, through requesting for certain categories of loans – to generating bank statements. It also connects the customer to discover lifestyle trends and social events. It is an all-in-one solution that is created to offer the most convenience for customers and built to provide solutions to everyday challenges of accessing financial services and more.
In the last 12 months, VULTe which hitherto caters more to individual customers, now has enhanced capabilities to render seamless self-services to SMEs, High Net worth, and retail customers. The over 40million MSME operators in Nigeria could now use Vulte to access collateral-free loans for personal and business purposes; where eligible entrepreneurs and SME operators could apply and get up to N20million in a space of 5 minutes without visiting the Bank in person.
While presenting the Best Digital Bank award to Polaris Bank, BAFI Awards organisers disclosed that the awards selection/review committee voted Polaris Bank’s VULTe the winner having outperformed its industry peers, across eight metrics for consideration.
The metrics include; strength of strategy for attracting and gaining digital customers, accelerated user engagement, success in getting clients to use digital offerings, growth of digital customers, and platform security.
Other metrics are the breadth of product offerings for retail and corporate clients, evidence of tangible benefits gained from digital initiatives and web/mobile site design, intuitiveness and functionality.
At the same BAFI Awards,Polaris Bank was declared ‘MSME Bank of the Year’ making it a back-to-back win for the Bank (haven won same award in 2022) in what the organisers described as the Bank’s expansive impact on MSME operators across Nigeria.
In the last Nine Months, Polaris Bank had committed billions in loans to expand operations of MSME operating in Nigeria.
Polaris Bank had in May 2022 launched a N1billion fund for MSMEs in partnership with Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) in what the Bank explained was aimed at providing the much-needed funding to create wealth and empower entrepreneurs and players within the MSME space in Nigeria, starting with Lagos.
Prior to the launch of the N1billion MSME Fund, Polaris Bank had committed, and indeed, continued to provide multibillion financing to MSME operators across sectors, health inclusive among other incentives, like moratorium on facilities granted to cushion businesses following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses.
Receiving the award on behalf of the Bank, Dele Adeyinka, Retail & Digital Banking Divisional Head, while expressing the Bank’s appreciation to BusinessDay for the recognition, dedicated the awards to the Bank’s customers and stakeholders for making VULTe what it is today and promised that “Polaris Bank will continue to impact MSME digitally through innovative banking products, affordable finance and creative services that add significant value for the greater good of all stakeholders’.
Polaris Bank is digital-forward Bank dedicated to forging a customer-focused future through innovative partnerships that reshape both businesses and communities.
15 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly, led by Speaker Martin Amaewhule, have left the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Amaewhule disclosed the lawmakers’ decision during Friday’s plenary, attributing their defection to what he called a “clear division” within the PDP.
“Distinguished colleagues, very happily, let me announce that your Speaker has decided, and has indeed written to my ward chairman of my decision, to leave the PDP. APC is my new party,” Amaewhule said.
Amaewhule’s Deputy, Dumle Maol, is one of the 16 lawmakers that joined APC as well.
All the lawmakers, who have jumped ship, are core loyalists of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Chief Nyesom Wike.
The Central Bank of Nigeria,has rolled out a new framework ito expedite handling of fraud accusations and refund victims.
Customers must report suspected fraudulent transactions within 72 hours under this draft guideline, and financial institutions have 16 working days to look into the matter and repay money.
The action comes in the wake of a dramatic increase in banking sector fraud.
According to data from the Financial Institutions Training Center, losses in the first quarter of 2025 increased to ₦3.29 billion, a startling 603 percent increase over the previous year. In the same time frame, reported cases also increased to 12,347.
The November 26, 2025, proposed regulations seek to improve bank accountability, expedite reimbursements, and boost prevention.
Director of the Financial Policy and Regulation Department Rita Sike signed the circular, which describes stricter regulations intended to prevent fraud before it occurs.
The apex bank’s ongoing fight against financial fraud has advanced with the adoption of this guidance. To enhance cooperation between operators, it established the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum in 2011.
It directed banks to establish specialized fraud bureaus four years later. By requiring BVN or NIN for account opening, it reinforced Know Your Customer checks in 2023.
Operatives of the Department of State Service have arrested a medical doctor treating wounded kidnappers inside the forest in different parts of Kwara State.
The suspect, whose name could not be ascertained at press time, was also involved in supplying drugs to kidnapping gangs operating in Kwara.
The DSS intercepted the medical doctor in the Jebba area after intelligence reports revealed that some couriers had been moving medical supplies from Sokoto to treat wounded bandits hiding in forests across the state.
A security official said many of the criminal groups have sustained gunshot injuries in recent encounters with forces.
The source said, “So, we are advising improved security measures in health facilities in thickly forested areas which the kidnappers may target.”
Confirming the development, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Kwara State, Rafiu Ajakaye, said the arrest was another significant breakthrough in ongoing efforts to combat banditry.
Ajakaye noted that the state government will continue to strengthen collaboration with security agencies to shut down all channels aiding kidnapping activities.
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