Since the beginning of 2022, the Nigerian Banking (commercial and digital) and Insurance industries have experienced an increase in media interactions, campaigns, and awareness, boosted even further by the fantastic numbers reported to the media between July and September 2022, according to a survey conducted by P+ Measurement Services, Nigeria’s top media intelligence organization.
The survey, which examined the media mood around commercial banks, big insurance providers, and prominent digital banks in Nigeria, showed that three tier-1 banks and two tier-2 banks made the top five with the highest positive and negative sentiments in Q3 2022.
According to P+ Measurement Services, the top five banks by positive reputation include First Bank with 24%, emerging top of the grid; closely followed by Access Bank’s 23%; while Stanbic IBTC Bank, United Bank for Africa and Fidelity Bank recorded 21%, 17%, and 15% respectively. The top five banks by negative media reputation were GTB, 37%, First City Monument Bank, 28%, Zenith Bank, 15%, UBA, 11% and Fidelity Bank, 9%.
For the Insurance companies’ media sentiment, AXA Mansard Insurance ranked top with 32%, trailed by Leadway Assurance, 30%; Coronation Insurance, 14%; Consolidated Hallmark Insurance, 13%; with AIICO Insurance completing the top five by positive reputation with 11%. The negative reputation table was led by Coronation Insurance, which garnered 42%; while Leadway Assurance and Mutual Benefits Assurance recorded 17% each; ahead of the 15% by NEM Insurance; and AXA Mansard Insurance, 9%.
According to an analysis of the top digital banks in Nigeria in Q3, Kuda Bank had the most favourable reputation, scoring 37%; followed by Vbank, 27%; ALAT by Wema Bank, 18%; Eyowo, 16%; and Mintyn, 2%. Kuda Bank also received a bad reputation score of 100% for the quarter under review.
The publication analysis, according P+ Measurement Services, includes over 1.2m online publications from blogs, news sites, broadcasts, forums, and digital media in the local and international media space, as well as approximately 4,776 print publications (including daily, weekly, and monthly publications). These are monitored to extract various metadata, including sentiments of reporters, editors, publishers, and opinion writers from various online and print publications, spokespersons analysis, CEOs performance, and other topics.
In the banking industry, the survey showed, for example, First Bank’s leadership was reinforced when it praised its FirstMonie agents for completing more than 1 billion transactions and reaffirmed its leading position in promoting financial inclusion in Nigeria.
On its part, Access Bank announced that it had rewarded its customers with millions in cash and prizes during its #AccessMore Mega Campaign, and Stanbic IBTC Bank echo that it had given out more cash prizes to Nigerians during monthly draws for its Reward4Savings promotion.
The insurance industry saw AXA Mansard emerge as the most innovative insurer of the year to solidify its position on the favourable reputation, Leadway Assurance signs a Memorandum of Understanding with FedCooP to cover 300,000 civil servants under its flagship, and Coronation Insurance declares that its premium income rose by 32.90% as its combined ratio also improved.
Leading the Digital Banks sector, Kuda Bank confirmed that it will charge customers N50 for deposits of N10,000 and above; Vbank is partnering with Autochek to guarantee the underwriting process for customer loan application processes for delivery of the requisite financing to customers within 48 hours of loan origination process and ALAT by Wema Bank stating that it introduced NQR to boost financial transactions in Nigeria.
On the other hand, analysis of the negative reputational drivers in the banking sector revealed that GTCO was suspended by the Nigeria Customs from import duty collection, followed by FCMB which had one of its customers crying out over the disappearance of N7m from his account, just as Zenith Bank was silent when the sum of N221,000 mysteriously left its customer’s account.
Coronation Insurance and others paid the sum of N78.6m to the NGX Regulation Limited as a penalty for default filing of financials, Leadway Assurance Company’s customer accused the brand of fraud over multi-million naira claims on a damaged vehicle, with Mutual Benefits Assurance declaring that its loss rose to N5.425bn in its 2021 financial result.
In the digital bank sector, Kuda Bank reportedly incurred a N6bn loss in 2021, which drove its reputation southward in Q3 2022.
This analysis, the P+ Measurement Services noted, showed the perceptions of editors, publishers, journalists, and opinion leaders’ of insurance and banking (digital & commercial) brands in the print and online media.
