Lagos State Govt And Heritage Partner On "Adopt-A-School" Programme

Heritage Bank Limited has pledged to support the 'Adopt-A-School' programme of the Lagos State government.

A statement Tuesday said the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Heritage Bank Limited, Mr. Ifie Sekibo, expressed the bank's commitment to the programme during a courtesy visit to Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola.

Sekibo said Heritage Bank would adopt one of the schools in the state as part of its corporate social responsibility, renovate it and equip it with state-of-the art electronic learning facilities.

Speaking on the benefits of the 'Adopt-A-School' initiative, Fashola called on other corporate bodies to be part of the programme by adopting one of the schools in the state. He stressed that by supporting the programme, organisations would be investing in their future, adding that the products of such school's would provide the services needed by the companies in the future.

Continuing, the Governor commended the bank. He declared that for acquiring the licence and deposit liabilities of the defunct SGBN, it had saved customers of the bank a lot of stress and resources. He said the bank's commitment to paying 100 per cent of the money in the account of former SGBN customers was highly commendable, especially given that customers may not have gotten more than N200,000 from Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) if the bank had gone into liquidation.

Earlier, Sekibo also expressed appreciation to the governor for accepting Heritage Bank as one of the receiving banks of the state government.

Heritage Bank commenced operations in March following its acquisition of the operating license of the defunct Societe Generale Bank of Nigeria (SGBN) and its deposit liabilities.

According to Sekibo, as a result of the financial institution's commitment to paying depositors of SGBN, prior to commencing operations, it had conducted an account verification exercise for then SGBN customers.

"The exercise is in two parts, namely verification of accounts and instant issuance of payment cheques for those who prefer to collect the balances in their accounts. Owners of successfully validated accounts also have the option of retaining such with the new Heritage Bank. "So far we have recorded significant success in the exercise, with most of the SGBN account holders verified, choosing to retain their accounts and bank with us rather than collecting their money", Sekibo said.

He said the exercise was ongoing, saying that account holders should come up with necessary documents as evidence of the account and the bank would pay them. He added that the bank's commitment however does not include interest payment on the deposit, but limited to the amount of money in the account as at the time SGBN was closed.