Unity Bank of Nigeria

Unity Bank of Nigeria

Chapter 1: Introduction

Backround of Organization

Unity Bank is a full-fledged financial service center with strong capital presently in excess of N30billion and deposit base of over N150billion, running on a branch network of 215 spread over Nigeria; a product of nine consolidated Banks, namely: First Interstate, Intercity, Pacific, Bank of the North, Tropical Commercial, Centrepoint, Societe Bancaire and NNB International Bank Plc. The Bank's business philosophy is to exceed the service delivery expectations of our customers.

Unity Bank initial target segment was student banking and finance sector. However, after several years and its position strengthen, it widens its operational scope to the mortgages and commercial banking transactions. Later, one of the moves of the west bank earned an extremely disagreeable reputation, when the bank announced the scarp of the interest free overdrafts for the graduates. Beside this loss of customer base, the recession also weakened the operations resulting in the acquisition of the Unity Bank in 2009 (Brigham, 2010, pp.96-105). Keeping in view all these circumstances and the slump economic trends, the bank will have to endeavor hard to revive its position. This paper discusses the proposal of chief executive Anne Jones in providing a strategic advantage to the bank by reviving its student banking segment. It highlights the pros and cons of this strategy, and whether it will be in benefit for the bank in the long run.

The latest venture/diversification

Services and customers

The new venture will be the real estate services. The bank will diversify into this segment to increase its customer base and capital acquisition. It will provide a sufficient amount of access to the capital and help it build its capabilities into this area (Madura, 2009, pp.125-145). The service provided will be the advice on issues including the analysis of the determination of a property's highest and best use, ways to maximize the real estate assets, suggestion on how to improve property for sale or lease, and an evaluation of property's potential of development. Other services include,

Pre-development analysis

Property repositioning

Portfolio evaluations

Portfolio rationalization

Expert opinions

Special situation implementation and analysis

Lease audits

Financing and market analyses.

It will provide this service for both the commercial and residential customers.

Supports to the company's competitive strategy

The major competitive advantage of the bank is its direct and personal approach to the clients. It remains in the first priority list if customers because they trust its competitiveness. Te word of mouth and reliability of the bank is also prominent due to a large customer base. In the banking industry, reliability is the most significant factor (Mukherjee, 2003, pp.255-269). This is the reason why the new venture will combine the competitive advantage with its core business operation that is banking. The bank will earn due to its name and business processes it currently operates in. the existing market base will be proficient in attracting the initial customer base for Unity Bank because the bank has a long term partnership with clients. Their views and perceptions about the services will give the bank a competitive ...