Sterling Bank closed 2022 with a commendable award—the Tourism, Hospitality, and Creativity Award from the International Tourism Practitioners in Nigeria (ITPN).
Sterling Bank, the leading bank supporting tourism in Nigeria, has proved to other banks that tourism is a profitable and worthwhile portfolio that needs financial enhancement to ignite its vibrancy as a sustainable national economic influencer.
Hence, it has powered, evolved, generated, developed, and packaged tourism-inducing financial facilities and initiatives that no other bank has ever accomplished in Nigeria.
Though Sterling Bank is not the only bank in Nigeria that offers incentives to tourism practitioners, ITPN must have discovered the consistency and tenacity of the bank’s goal-driven passion for ensuring credit solidity and financial stability for the tourism sector.
This is the initiative and vision of its young, vibrant and intelligent Managing Director, Abu Suleiman who has proactively identified tourism as a hidden diamond hitherto neglected by players in the banking sector.
To Abu Suleiman and his great team at Sterling Bank, the Tourism and Hospitality Sector is a core sector of the economy that deserves tripartite collaborative engagement of the banking sector, practitioners, and government for it to blossom.
It is gratifying to note that Sterling Bank’s modest efforts at stoking the embers of tourism development in Nigeria are not only positively impacting the economy but are also being acknowledged by an international credible institution like ITPN.
Bagging the award of Tourism, Hospitality, and Creativity, 2022, from the International Tourism Practition was a high-level demonstration that the public noticed and that the entire tourism practitioners world appreciated Sterling Bank’s strategic and consistent intervention in the tourism industry.
Mrs Abiola Adelana, the Tourism business manager at Sterling Bank said “If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right. If you don’t do your best, two things can happen—one, you have to go back and do it; and two, if you don’t go back and do it, you are shortchanging yourself and those you are trying to help. By doing your best and striving for excellence, you will greatly exceed all of your expectations”
This affidavit of Abiola Adelana magnifies the extent of vigour with which the bank and its entire management drive its tourism vision and objectives.
One earnestly believes that Sterling Bank will continue to do its best and will not rest on its oars in the coming years.
Special appreciation to the ITPN under the indefatigable man of global excellence, Chief Abiodun Odusanwo, for recognising the inestimable contribution of the entire management of Sterling Bank, led by Mr Abubakar Suleiman to the tourism industry
We also hope that this will stimulate and ignite the passion in other banks to see what Sterling Bank discovered in the tourism sector and lend their hands to support it like Sterling Bank is fulfilling.
Once again, Kudos to ITPN for rewarding the tremendous strides of Sterling Bank in the tourism sector for the year 2022
Congratulations to Sterling Bank for diligently offering unprecedented Sterling services to the tourism sector, which has distinguished and set it apart from the maddening crowd of banks in Africa that offer tourism incentives to practitioners in the sector.
*Amb Ojo- Lanre, Tourism Advocate, sent this piece from Usi-Ekiti, +2348033490986.