FirstBank Empowers Vendors

First Bank Nigeria recently organised its inaugural vendor engagement session aimed at enhancing its relationship with strategic service suppliers.Thebankexpresseditscommitmenttowardsmaximisingthe benefits of a long-term partnership and collaboration with vendors by streamliningeverystageofthesupplier’ssustainabilityanddevelopment.

The Group Head, Procurement of First Bank, Damilola Adisa, during the forum which was themed, ‘Building Resilience in our Vendors Businesses,’ in Lagos, pointed out that the bank has been able to exist for 125 years as a result of investments of resources and time in making sure practices of sustainable businesses and partnership are maintained.

According to her, “we also look into our code of ethics and conducts alongside business continuity management and planning which are structures that are necessary in becoming a viable player in the market.”

Adisa explained, “This engagement is also aimed at enlightening our vendors on where we as a bank are strategically heading to so as to enable them align with our cooperate and procurement strategy to move forward.

“We believe that with this kind of process we are able to better analyse our relationship which would help us work with our partners and vendors better.”

On her part, Chief Compliance Officer, First Bank, Nigeria said, “We have been interacting with the vendors as we train them on the policies that enhance their interactions with us. The actions of our vendors and partners concerns us thus we take steps to measure and educate them so as to help us resolve issues before they arise.