DRAWS
The Nigeria Bankers Games in 2022 commenced with Draws/ stakeholders forum to decide the format and modalities for this year’s competition. In attendance were representatives of Wema Bank, First Bank, Sterling Bank, Fidelity Bank, FCMB and Keystone Bank. The draws which was held at the maison Fahrenheit hotel, started with opening prayers, introduction of representatives Tennent’s of the competition and a recap of the NBG 2019to make the competition interesting and robust it was agreed that a round robin model should be adopted for the football competition. All teams play each other to gather points, and at the end of the round robin, the first two banks proceed to final while the third and fourth placed banks settle for third place match.
Other events at the 2022 edition of the Nigeria Bankers Games are Chess, Scrabble, Video Games (Mortal Combat, Fifa 22), Table Tennis and athletics (100m 200m, 4x100m) the representing banks asked that 400m be returned as part of the athletics event. The evening ended with a dinner and photo session
GAME WEEK ONE
The Nigeria Bankers Games 2022 opened in grand style at the Yaba College of Technology Sports Complex, Yaba, with participant banks showing up in vibrant colors to play and support their banks.
It was very exciting to welcome back all the banks and fans to the Nigeria Bankers Games in 2022 after a two-year hiatus caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the students of Yabatech were thrilled that the Games were back.
The opening event was attended by senior bank officials, including Mr. Ikemefula Nwachukwu, Head of personnel banking at First Bank Nigeria; Head of employee services, FCMB Mr. Tunde Olokode and Group Head, Internal Audit FCMB, Mr. Wale Oduola. These dignitaries also performed ceremonial handshakes and official kickoff for the football games.
The day’s activities began with a novelty football game between the students and staff team of Yabatech. The students won by a lone goal.
WEMA BANK 1 vs 1 FIRST BANK (Oluloye Ademola, Igwe Ray)
FCMB 0 vs 2 STERLING BANK (Eze Philemon, Omole Ayomiku)
FIDELITY BANK (0) VS (3) KEYSTONE BANK – Walk-over
GAME WEEK TWO
Fidelity Bank was not present on match day one to defend the football tittle nd by the second weekend it was clear that the bank wouldn’t continue with the 2022 edition of the Nigeria Bankers Games, hence all other participating banks will be awarded three points and three goals when they face fidelity bank.
It’s no surprise that the previous week had witnessed actions, including dribbles, well-placed shots, breathtaking goals, saves, etc. all participating bank were prepared to show nerve capturing skills on game day 2.
FIRST BANK 3 vs 0 FCMB (Ibrahim Labaran x2, Phillip Emmanuel)
KEYSTONE 1 VS 2 WEMA BANK (Rasheed Ibrahim, Collins Benjamin x2)
STERLING BANK (3) VS (0) FIDELITY BANK – Walk-over
GAME WEEK THREE
The third week of the 2022 edition of the Nigeria bankers’ games started with Table Tennis and Scrabble concurrently on Saturday 29th of October at the Oba of Lagos sports hall, Eko Club, Surulere.
The event witnessed the first Gold Medals of the 2022 edition of the Nigeria Bankers Games
TABLE TENNIS
Men’s Singles; Abiodun Bakare of First bank defeated Kehinde Odegbile of FCMB in the semifinals, to face the current champion Rekuoye Fredrick of Sterling Bank who defeated Akinwale Omotoye of FCMB. This will be a repeat of the 2019 finals of the mens singles as both players faced each other in this category.
Womens singles; Wema Bank was assured of the first gold medal as Taiwo Awolesi and Bukola Olorunmaye will played each other in the finals. Both players represents Wema Bank
Mens Double; First bank duo “Solomon Idowu/Abiodun Bakare’ will face two of FCMB’s finest ‘Kehinde Odegbile/Akinwale Omotoye’ in the finals of the Table tennis mens doubles in the coming week.
SCRABBLE
The female scrabble players competed against each other in a round of five games with Jane Afolabi claiming Gold and Adedeji Wemimo in second place to win the silver medal, with +220 and +124 respectively both players represent Wema Bank while keystones ‘deluxe’ Funmilayo Folarin came in third to win a bronze medal.
The male Scrabble competition was a game of seven rounds that saw Sterling Banks very own Bright Uzu win their first gold medal with high score of +839. In second place was his colleague ‘Anifowose Adedotun’ with a score of +817. Anifowose also had a high game of 591. Wema bank picked up yet another medal as Olusegun Ogundiya came in third position to win the bronze medal, he had a score count of +222.
FOOTBALL
Match week three of the Nigeria Bankers Games at the Yaba College of Technology Sports Complex, Yaba saw fans and students compete in games with various prizes won
The match commenced by 12 noon.
WEMA BANK (Cornelius Afuape) 1 vs 2 STERLING BANK (Lateef Babatunde, Lateef Babatunde)
KEYSTONE 0 vs 2 FIRST BANK (Theophilus Igeraese, Oladimeji Ojo)
FIDELITY BANK (0) VS (3) FCMB – Walk-over
GAME WEEK FOUR
Video Games started and Table tennis continued in the week four of the 2022 edition of the Nigeria bankers’ at the Oba of Lagos sports hall, Eko Club, Surulere.
In the table tennis men’s singles category, Fredrick Rekuoya defeated Abiodun Bakare in three straight sets on Saturday, November 5 at the Oba of Lagos Sports Hall to win the second gold medal for Sterling Bank.
The first bank duo of Solomon Idowu and Abiodun Bakare Aremo trounced the FCMB pair of Kehinde Odegbile and Akinwale Omotoye by a score of three to one in men’s table tennis doubles. And to conclude table tennis, Wema Bank-Bukola Olorunmaye defeated her teammate Taiwo Awolesi in three straight victories claiming gold and silver respectively for their Bank.
Male and female competitors from each of the participating banks competed in the video game competition, which featured Mortal Combat and FIFA 22. In the Mortal Combat men’s category, FCMB took home both the gold and silver medals, while Wema Bank won the FIFA 22 men’s tournament gold medal. Aminat Sokunbi, who represented Wema Bank, won the Gold medal in the Female Mortal Combat division.
FOOTBALL
As of the previous week’s matches, the top three banks in the football standings were becoming obvious.
STERLING BANK 4 vs 0 KEYSTONE BANK (Eze Philemon x3, Chuks Onwuachu)
FCMB 0 VS 1 WEMA (Collins Benjamin)
FIRST BANK (3) VS (0) FIDELITY BANK – Walk-over
GAME WEEK FIVE
Upon conclusion of some events, week five commenced on Saturday with Chess event at the Oba of Lagos sports hall.
First Banks Nnaemeka Reuben Eze accumulated most points and claimed gold medal for the chess male event while Sterling banks Oluwasanmi Ale and Femi Adebayo won silver and bronze respectively, it was yet another Gold medal for Wema bank has Ehiwario Peace and Bukar Halima won gold and silver respectively, leaving Ofodu Ifunanya of first bank to claim the bronze medal for the female chess competition.
On Sunday 13th of November, 2022. The athletics heat for the 100m, 200m, and the 400m took place at the Yaba College of education before the last group stage game of the football competition commenced. The athletics heat was every exciting as well as engaging.
KEYSTONE BANK 0 vs 3 FCMB (Ernest Ipogah x3)
FIRST BANK 0 vs 0 STERLING BANK
WEMA Bank (3) VS (0) FIDELITY BANK – Walk-over
First Bank Nigeria finishing first with 11 points from 5 games, while Sterling Bank and Wema tied with 10 points each. However, Sterling Bank advanced to the final to face the Elephants of First Bank after defeating Wema Bank on goal differential.
FOOTBALL TABLE
| TEAM | P | W | L | D | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
| FIRST BANK | 5 | 3 | – | 2 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 11 |
| STERLING BANK | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 10 |
| WEMA BANK | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
| FCMB | 5 | 2 | 3 | – | 7 | 6 | 1 | 6 |
| KEYSTONE BANK | 5 | 1 | 4 | – | 4 | 11 | -7 | 3 |
FINALS
Wema bank played the third place match with FCMB who amassed 6 points from the group stage of the competition. There was no spot for Keystone bank as they finished bottom of the league table with 3points. Keystone Bank was however rewarded with fair play award for the comport attitude exhibited on and off the field of play, they had the least caution throughout the competition
The third place match between Wema bank and FCMB ended in a goalless draw and penalty shoot-out was the decider, FCMB edged past Wema Bank by scoring 4 out of possible 5 shoots and Wema Bank converting only 3 from the spot
The final game was inherently challenging because both teams were evenly matched as Sterling Jets’ attacking skill met the formidable defense of Ishau Ganiu and Dele Oshikomaiaya. It would have been a great first win for First Bank Nigeria who had never won the football trophy after playing in three finals without succeeding. Alas! Eze Philemon, the tournament’s top scorer, valiantly converted a penalty kick for Sterling Bank to break the scoreless tie after a first bank player fouled one of his teammates in the 18-yard area. By scoring the lone goal, Sterling won their first Nigeria Bankers Games Football trophy.
Firstbank 0 – 1 Sterling
Sterling bank has decided to restrict their fans airflow by scoring ahead FirstbankWhat an amazing penalty 🔥 🔥 pic.twitter.com/7unByFdykR
— MediaVisionlimited (@MediaVisionLtd) November 19, 2022
To grace the grand finale, Mrs. Yemisi Edun ( Managing Director, FCMB) was in attendance to give the required support to her staff, she rejoiced with them has they claimed the Bronze medal for the football tournament. Also present was Toyin Kieran (chief complaint officer) and Uduak Afangide (Regional Executive south-south/south-east) – Wema Bank, Wumi Faigu (chief information and security officer) – sterling bank, Nwanchukwu Ikemefula (Head Personal Banking) – First Bank Nigeria
THIRD PLACE MATCH: WEMA BANK (3) 0 VS 0 (4) FCMB
FINAL MATCH: FIRST BANK (0) VS (1) STERLING BANK
The athletics finals recorded winners from all participating banks, this also added up the medal table for all the banks.
At the end of the tournament, Wema Bank emerged overall champion of the competition with 22 medals, followed by Sterling Bank in second place with 17 medals. Of particular note was the performance of Afolabi Adedoyin of Sterling Bank, who was named the Best Athlete of the Competition after taking part in more than 4 different events and taking home medals in 3 of the possible 4.
First Bank Nigeria Finished in third place on the medal table with a total of 9 medals amassed.
MEDAL TABLE
| TEAM | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL |
| WEMA BANK | 10 | 7 | 5 | 22 |
| STERLING BANK | 5 | 6 | 6 | 17 |
| FIRST BANK | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 |
| FCMB | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 |
| KEYSTONE BANK | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Fela is the Co-founder of MediaVision Limited .
