When it comes to the modern banking industry in Nigeria and, by extension Africa, Innocent C Ike is neither a greenhorn nor a pushover. He knows the banking business like the back of his hand. Fully armed with a wide range of experience as the executive director (Technology & Services) of the defunct SkyeBank Plc from July 2016 to the creation of Polaris Bank, he has been involved in developing and executing major corporate transformation and turnaround projects in the nation’s financial services industry. He has leveraged a combination of in-depth industry knowledge and the application of relevant technologies and innovation.
When the immediate past MD, Tokunbo Abiru, resigned to join politics, it didn’t take so long for Innocent to be the top choice for the bank’s decision-making body, who was aware of his track record as a time-tested banking whizzkid.
With his rich resume garnered through sheer dint of hard work, he was able to land the acting MD and CEO of Polaris. Upon his appointment in September 2020, he didn’t waste much time in the heat of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. He immediately hit the ground running with impeccable ideas to make Polaris Bank compete with other top banks with updated, innovative banking models to ease stress and cement a seamless bond between the bank and customers. At the point he took over, detractors sneered at him, patiently waiting for him to fail, but he proved them wrong with dedication, steadfastness, team spirit, prayers and will to succeed.
On May 18, he and his team launched VULTe (a quick service digital banking platform) to further shock naysayers to deliver greater value and benefits to existing and new customers of the Bank that has seen analysts and customers drooling on its seamless functionalities. According to sources close to the bank, the newly launched 24/7 banking channel is regarded as one of the best innovations in banking for 2021.
The banking channel enables you to open an account and Wallet in (NGN and USD), load airtime and data; fund account; funds transfer; bills payment; payday loan; lifestyle and events (Discover). There are also automated teller machines and branch/agent locator. It also allows viewing of transactions history, generation of bank statements, profile settings like hide/show balance, hide/show accounts, forgot user ID/password, reset PIN, etcetera, and banking services such as limit increase, request card/cheque book, block account/card, etc.”
Another source revealed that people are marvelled with the level of achievements recorded by the bank on his watch within the space of eight months.
The source stated, “In addition, he was given vote-of-confidence by the board of directors and investors who believed he would keep up with the good work by restoring the lost glory of the bank with more innovative banking ideas.”
