Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility

Our multi-million naira flagship Iga-Idunganran Lagos Island Community Healthcare Centre attests to our commitment to health care delivery in local communities. The facility was built, equipped and donated to meet the primary healthcare needs of residents in the Lagos Island area.

We also donate healthcare equipment and facilities to public hospitals, such as the recent donation of incubators and accessories to the neonatal care unit of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, Cross River State, in an effort to reduce infant mortality. We have also donated state-of-the-art ambulances to medical institutions such as the National Hospital, Abuja

We partner with relevant healthcare institutions to provide free medical diagnosis for the indigent. This is part of our efforts at prevention and early detection of life-threatening ailments such as cancer and HIV-AIDS.

The bank offers scholarship to indigent and exceptionally bright students in an effort to ensure that lack of funds does not truncate their academic dreams. We encourage and support academic excellence and award cash gifts and job opportunities for the best graduating students in some Nigerian universities. We have built and renovated several learning institutions, and fitted state-of-the-art ICT Centres and science laboratories

Our Adopt-a-School initiative targets public primary and secondary schools. We donate and renovate classroom blocks, laboratories, computers and accessories, power generating sets, libraries, among others. Some of our recent projects in this regard include the Ojota Senior Secondary School, Ojota; Queens’ College, Yaba; and the Ondo State School for the Hearing Impaired, Akure; among others.

Over the years, the bank has invested heavily in sports development in our two-pronged effort to harness the country’s great potential in sports and also to empower young Nigerians to build a rewarding career. Since 2005, we have been the title sponsor of the Zenith National Female Basketball League which has over the years produced several international stars in female basketball and acted as a ready pool from which the country’s National Team is drawn. We have also supported the Nigerian Football Federation, Warri Wolves Football Club, and several other grassroots sports development initiatives across the country.

Our youth empowerment initiative is mostly focused on ICT and entrepreneurial skills development. We encourage youths to bring out the creative, innovative and business geniuses in them. We are committed to funding winning business ideas in an effort to create a huge pool of job creators and employers of labor as youth unemployment worsens across the world.

As part of our youth and educational empowerment strategy, especially in the area of information technology, we have built various ICT centers across Nigeria and have donated computers to hundreds of secondary schools.

Through our annual Christmas Youth Parade which attracts a crowd of over 5000 participants, the bank brings together youths from all segments of the society and avail them a platform to bond, unwind, enjoy and constructively burn their huge reservoir of energy. Orphanages, schools, and institutions for children with special needs and youngsters from diverse social strata participate in what has become one of the biggest carnivals to mark the end of each year.

Zenith Bank actively supports governments’ effort at developing the country’s physical infrastructure. We undertake the reconstruction of roads in bad conditions, renovation of public buildings, beautification and landscaping, among others. Among our flagship projects in this regard is the Ajose Adeogun road located in Victoria Island, Lagos. The project entailed the total reconstruction and beautification of a 2.6 kilometer road. Considering its highly strategic location in the heart of Lagos Island, the Ajose Adeogun road project was intended to serve as a model of how a road on a metropolitan, highbrow area should be. Since the completion of the project, vehicular traffic on the road has increased as it has become the preferred route for commuters and vehicles driving within and outside the Lagos Island area.

In addition to the ‘green ambiance’ we have maintained at our Ajose Adeogun Road since 2007, every December we decorate the road with spectacular Christmas lightings and animations that add extra glamour to the yuletide season and the celebrations of thousands of Lagos residents and tourists from within and outside the country.

• Donation of 10 Mobile Cancer Centres (in conjunction with the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy)
• Building, equipping and donation of our flagship Iga Idunganran Healthcare Centre
• Sponsorship of the South-South Economic Summit
• Support for States’ Security Trust Funds
• Title sponsorship of the National Women Basketball League (in conjunction with the Nigeria Basketball Federation)
• Sponsorship of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)

As a responsible corporate citizen, we are dedicated to creating economic value for all our stakeholders, government and the larger society. We will continue to leverage economy of scale, resource efficiency, quality people and state-of-the-art technology to drive innovation, improve profitability and return on investment.  

We will continue to support the economic growth and development agenda of government. We remain committed to driving sustainable growth in agriculture, manufacturing, oil and gas, trade and commerce, construction and real estate, among other sectors of the economy. We are committed to using our financial products to support SME growth and boost entrepreneurship.

As a major financial services brand, we understand our responsibility towards sustainable economic growth and development at the national and global level.

Our people are our most valuable assets. Our business strategy is anchored on People, Technology and Service. We recognize our employees as vital to our long-term performance and business continuity.

At Zenith Bank, excellent service delivery is a key priority. And we understand that this can only be delivered by a workforce that is highly trained, skilled, competent and motivated to attain their full potential. This is why we celebrate hard work, reward excellence, and train up to 90 percent of our workforce annually.

Zenith Bank is an equal opportunity employer. We abhor all forms of discrimination on the basis of gender, color, tribe or ethnicity, religion, marital status or physical challenges. Our Human Rights Policy clearly defines these standards and lays down strict penalties for violations.

In accordance with international labor standards as spelt out in the International Labor Organization (ILO) Forced Labor Convention (2014), Zenith Bank does not condone the use of forced or compulsory labor in its operations or in its dealings with third parties. We promote gender equality and provide equal opportunities for all employees to thrive.

We are committed to responsible products delivery, mutually beneficial relationship with our host communities, and compliance with all laws and regulations governing our business activities.

We will continue to leverage our position as a leading African brand to support the aspirations of government and the SDGs towards eradicating extreme poverty, creating new jobs and ensuring inclusive growth and development.

We are committed to the global fight against greenhouse gas emission, biodiversity loss, climate change, deforestation, resource wastefulness, and all other forms of practices that degrade the quality of our physical environment. We are also committed to the environmental and social standards of the Equator Principles, the United Nations Environment Program’s Finance Initiative, the UN Global Compact, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Nigeria Sustainable Banking Principles, among other global codes that promote responsible business practices and the wellbeing of the environment.

Achieving a balanced performance scorecard means for us, integrating environmental and social considerations into our measurement scale, and looking beyond just profit. It also entails imbibing global best practices in our business policies and practices and ensuring that our value system is propelled by a commitment to the triple-bottom line – people, planet, profit.We will continue to promote policies and practices that would reduce our negative environmental footprints and enhance our positive environmental impact.

We understand the need for effective engagement of these stakeholders and the critical role they play in the actualization of our business goals and objectives. As an aspiring global brand, it is our responsibility to pay close attention to the views and concerns expressed by our stakeholders and tobuild considerations for their wellbeing into every business decision we make and every business action we take. We are mindful of how our business operations impact them, and vice versa.

At Zenith Bank, we consider our stakeholders as essential partners in our business operations. Our internal stakeholders (employees, owners, Board of Directors, managers, investors and shareholders) and our external stakeholders (customers, investors and shareholders, host communities, the media, suppliers and vendors, government and regulators, and so on) all play their different roles in ensuring our business growth and continuity. We will therefore always play our role in ensuring their overall wellbeing.

Using a variety of open and participatory engagement channels such as surveys, one-on-one meetings, conference calls, dedicated contact centres, town hall meetings, annual general meetings, bulletins, periodic reports, among others, we effectively engage our stakeholders, feeling their pulse at every point in time and ensuring that we are guided by what they think or say. The issues raised during these engagements and our progress in addressing them are reported each year, in our annual Sustainability Report.

As a leading player in the African financial services landscape, we understand our role in stimulating increased economic activities, job creation, infrastructure development, economic diversification, women and youth empowerment, capacity building, extreme poverty eradication and overall economic growth and development. To this end, we continue to invest in our communities as part of our corporate social responsibility.

We will continue to support governments’ efforts at fighting extreme poverty, inequality, discrimination against women, human rights abuses, and all forms of practices that degrades the fundamental rights and wellbeing of the people.