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The board and management of the First Bank of Nigeria Plc have approved substantial amount of money as part of the bank's donation to the 16th National Sports Festival billed for Kaduna next year.

Business Development Manager of the bank at the Bank Road, Kaduna Gimba Hassan Ibrahim disclosed this much to New Nigerian Sports yesterday in Kaduna and added that the bank's officials will soon visit Governor Mohammed Namadi Sambo in the near future to make a formal presentation.

He, however, said he was not in a position to disclose the amount of money to be given to the Kaduna State government as part of their contribution, saying that the figure would be announced at appropriate time and date.

It would be recalled First Bank of Nigeria Plc supported the ongoing Kaduna International Polo Tournament with five million Naira as sponsors of the Georgian Cup.

Gimba, who spoke at length also, said the bank is virtually into all the sports one can think of. "We have First Bank football team playing in the professional league and we have the most successful female basketball in the country and indeed Africa. We sponsor golf competitions in the country and presently we are one of the major sponsors of the 16th National Sports Festival which Kaduna is about to host."

He said First Bank Plc has been undergoing changes in the last few years as part of decentralization as opposed to the previous practice where powers are concentrated in the head office.

"You will find that in most of the states you now have business development managers in place of Area Managers or Regional Managers who take care of the banking; so we are very close to our branches; 90 per cent of our customers' request can now be treated at the branch level before it comes to the head office. We are now positioned to meet our customers' requirements with less stress and I think this has been happening over the years since 1996," he further stated.

"First Bank Plc has been sponsoring Georgian Cup for about century now. Georgian Cup has been around for over 90 years and since inception the bank has been its sponsor and we hope to continue to sponsor it for another century.

"As you are aware the bank has been in place for more than a century now. It is the pioneer bank in the whole of West Africa and indeed Nigeria and we associate with both the kings and the down trodden. As we know polo is a game of kings that bring all segment of the community together and we are proud to be associated with the Kaduna Polo Club and the polo game," Gimba added.

He said First Bank believes that sports are meant to develop the minds of youth and the adult.

Asked how much the bank has spent in terms of supporting sports, he said they had spent huge amount of resources in the development of sports in the country. "We spent hundred of millions of Naira in sports every year and we will continue to do so," he promised.

"As you are aware, First Bank is a good corporate citizen and we associate with any laudable objective that involves the Nigerian people and the government of Nigeria. Yes we are in business and we would like to associate with people that make up the business. We need customers and that is fundamental but at the same time we would like to be seen as a sincere corporate citizen that will associate with anything good for the country. So, I think it not just Naira and Kobo but everything that it is in the overall interest of the country

"We don't restrict ourselves to sports alone but we also engaged in other areas that have positive impact on the people of the country. If you look at our audited accounts last year we spent about half billion Naira as a donations to things like these and that were the major ones and I believe there are other smaller ones that are not included in the annual accounts

"First Bank also gave financial support to special sports during the Olympic Games hosted by China recently and we don't discriminate when it comes to assisting sports in the. If we can sponsor Georgian Cup with five million Naira in this year's polo tournament I can assure you that we are willing to do more and there are occasions where we give higher than that amount. We are always positive in whatever we do," Gimba said.

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