Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NOVA Merchant Bank, Mr Nath Ude has revealed that the bank was focused on identifying the gap existing in the economy and working hard on ways to bridge them.
Speaking during a recent interview on CNBC Africa, Ude said NOVA will identify infrastructural gaps and fund them with the aim of growing the economy in the long term.
He stated that NOVA Merchant Bank, will play an active role in bridging Nigeria’s infrastructural gaps by measuring business growth with impacts.
“As Merchant banks, we are supposed to bridge a huge gap, especially on the infrastructural side… there is a huge gap,” he stated.
According to Ude, the economy is heavily reliant on importation which has adversely affected growth. The NOVA helmsman said, “We look at the manufacturing side –what are the things we need to manufacture, what are the things people need to do.
“I usually look at this to say, this is a huge opportunity for us as a nation and Merchant bank to step into our real cores and see how we become a huge partner in terms of bridging infrastructural gaps.”
It will be recalled that NOVA posted a profit after tax increase of 112 percent to N3.49 billion from N1.65 billion in 2019 despite the COVID-19 pandemic and declared N800 million as dividends for the shareholders.
Speaking on the feat despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ude said, “Profit before tax (PBT) is very good, we have done good work, but honestly, we want to measure ourselves with impacts we are bringing to the table.
“For the second part of the year, I want to talk less about profitability… I really want to focus on the impact we should be bringing to the table as opposed to measuring our growth by PBT,” he said.
