The Bank of Industry (BoI) has been awarded the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 9001:2015 for Quality Management Systems.

Mr Olukayode Pitan, the Managing Director of BoI, said that the bank was strategically focused to re-invent and benchmark itself with global trends toward enhancing its service delivery profile to all stakeholders.

Pitan spoke  in Lagos during the presentation of the ISO certificate to the bank by DQS Management Systems Ltd.

The  DQS is one of the international leading certification bodies for improving management systems and organisational health through value-adding assessment services.

Pitan said that the certification was part of the BoI’s strategies to achieve its vision to become a leading Development Finance Institution in Africa, operating under global best practices.

“Management took a decision in 2014 to implement the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System.”

“We went through a painstaking and rigorous process of reviewing, revamping and documenting our business processes, guided by the DQS Management Systems Nigeria Limited toward obtaining the certification in 2015.”

“As at the time, we were the only Development Finance Institution in Nigeria with such a certification.”

“The ISO 9001:2008 Certification provided us with a world class platform to achieve this, as it is a business management tool which provides internationally recognised models for operating a quality management system.

“The certification, therefore, sent a strong message to our stakeholders that we take quality and customer service very seriously,” he said.

Pitan said that the BoI’s zeal to sustain quality, inspired its desire to upgrade quality management certification from the 9001:2008 version to 9001: 2015, being the latest version.

According to him, the certification is the beginning of a three-year quality management system cycle that BoI is expected to maintain and continually improve its management system.

Pitan said a post-implementation framework has been developed to ensure that the bank maintains high standards to pass both the internal and external ISO audits as they take place within the cycle and beyond.

In his remarks, Mr Lawrence Ogudu, the Country Manager, DQS Nigeria, said the certification would give stakeholders the assurance that the components of values of BoI had been checked and confirmed by an independent third party organisation.

He said that the certification would increase the bank’s credibility, competitiveness and efficiency to quality service and customer satisfaction.