Guaranty Trust Bank PLC also known as GTBank or simply GTB is a multinational financial institution which was founded in Nigeria in 1988 by 35 young Nigerians. It has various branches in other African States. They offer online/internet banking, retail banking, corporate banking, investment banking and asset management services, with their head office located at Victoria Island, Lagos.
They aim to constantly strive to create the best outcomes for our customers and communities and become a Platform for Enriching Lives by building strong, value adding relationships with customers, stakeholders and the communities in which it operates.
GTB performs various cooperate social responsibilities within the various environments or communities in which they find themselves. At GT Bank, they passionately believe that “Corporate Social Responsibility embodies an ardent commitment and social pact with all the stakeholders.”
Their social responsibilities are encapsulated in these various spheres which includes:
· Art
· Environment
· Community Development
· Education
· ARTS
This is probably my most interesting activity with GT Bank as one of their customers. Being a lover of arts, I have visited their arts gallery quiet a number of times and have drawn for myself certain inspirations. The Bank Launched the Art635 in 2016. This is an online gallery that aids artist, sculptors, painters and such like around Africa to display and sell their art works. Through this, it has helped put African artworks on the global tables by exposing over 1000 unique art works and a 100 artist to the world.
They also run the Art Workshops that teaches artist how to effectively monetize their products. The On-boarding of artists which is open for African artist to register and others.
The GTBank Fashion Weekend is also very interesting. Although happening Virtually this year due to the pandemic, the Fashion weekend is a consumer-focused fair and free business platform intended to showcase the best of Africa’s Fashion to international audience though still encouraging the bubbling enterprise of the continent’s growing fashion industry.
· ENVIRONMENT
Being a signatory to The United Nations Environmental Programme Finance Initiative (UNEPFI) in 2012, GT Bank are active in environmental development. Since 2010, they ran an Autism awareness program with the last one in 2019.
· EDUCATION
GT Bank holds strong the belief that Quality education paves way for a bright future hence, they also impact the educational sector. This financial institution focuses most on Sports Education with football being its heartbeat. They run football tournaments which includes the Principals Cup, the Masters Cup, the Super Cup, as well as the Players Development Programme where talents are identified, nurtured and encouraged to build thriving football careers. Youngsters from different schools come together to compete for a mouthwatering prize. Their last activity, GTBank Masters Cup was before the lockdown which took place on the 3rd of February 2020. Since its inception in 2012, the GT Bank masters cup has been looked forward to by members of the society
· COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
GT Bank is quite involved in actions that would help improve the community as well as its members. For instance, in 2019, To mark the children’s day celebration, the bank launched the #BeatTheDistance initiative where they promoted bridging the distance or mobility difficulty children in the rural area faces. They are going to be distributing bicycles to 20 rural communities in 3 states within the nation so as to help them beat the energy and stress they use in getting to school.
It also caught my attention that they support art and artists. I just wonder if there is any strategic reason why the Bank picked this particular topic?