Financial services group Canary Point Holdings has set its sights on significant growth in the sectors of the economy where it operates as it formally inducts new members to its board.
The group inducted new members to its board at a ceremony held on Saturday in Lagos, which saw the addition of former Executive Director (Operations) Securities and Exchange Commission, Dayo Obisan, and co-founder of two of the unicorns, Andela and Flutterwave, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, as non-executive directors.
The recent Board Induction Programme brought together directors and trustees from Canary Point Holding Limited and its subsidiaries, including Assets Microfinance Bank, Canary Point Finance Limited, and Canary Point Capital Limited, as well as the not-for-profit Canary Foundation.
The induction, as highlighted by Group Board Chairman Mr Kayode Lambo, was designed to equip board members with the necessary information and tools to make informed, strategic decisions, ensuring a common understanding of the company’s purpose and approach.
He said, “He, Obisan, and Aboyeji are both highly valued new members. We believe that they will bring a lot of experience, background, and innovation into the world, and that is what Canary is all about. We want to do things a little differently and make things work for the people who actually need them.”
As you know, these two gentlemen have a lot of experience in fintech, and the way forward, we feel, is fintech. For most of the things that have been done everywhere. So, their experience coming on board is going to be a great boost for what we’re going to do because most of our products are going to be based on fintech and its components.
“Yes, we know the financial services space is competitive. We’ve started some time ago. These gentlemen are coming and bringing what is the latest to us to help us use and move even further forward the basics of life, the basic things to do of business in life. Fintech, AI, and co. are just tools that you use to make things easier and a little better for the work you’re doing. So, we believe that with the addition, we’ll be able to set a standard. Well, we are going to continue our business. We have a target for three to five years, and at that time, we are hoping to be able to become a much bigger organisation and possibly establish a commercial bank. But as of now, we want to consolidate what we’ve been doing and expand and become a household name. We want to be able to provide everything that most people need for their finances, and that’s why we are here. We want to know ourselves a little bit better, introduce ourselves to the public, and get to start to build up everything we are doing.”
Echoing the growth ambition was the Group Managing Director, Mr. Idris Ibrahim, who stated the company is aiming to grow in revenue, grow in assets, and ultimately go public.
“The way forward is to grow in revenue, grow in assets, and go public. We want to be more public-facing because we’ve been doing business for over 10 years, but we’ve been very quiet in our group, so now we are going out to the public and trying to get more people involved in our business,” Ibrahim said.
MD of Assets Microfinance Bank, a subsidiary of Canary Holdings, Emmanuel Bassey, emphasised the bank’s connection to the grassroots and SMEs, focusing on understanding their specific needs to create tailored and innovative digital financial products.