For generations, women have been encouraged to work harder, save more and persevere. Yet personal determination, while essential, cannot overcome every barrier. Progress happens faster when ambition is supported by access to finance, practical knowledge, trusted networks and opportunities for growth.

Across Nigeria, women are building businesses, advancing careers, supporting families and creating employment. Their contributions are visible in boardrooms, markets, offices, factories and communities. However, many still face limited access to capital, business guidance and professional networks that could help them move from potential to sustained success.

This reality explains the growing appeal of communities designed specifically to help women thrive. Women increasingly want financial relationships that understand their ambitions, respond to their realities and support their development beyond traditional banking transactions.

HerFidelity, the women focused proposition from Fidelity Bank, reflects this changing expectation. It brings together financial services, business education, enterprise support, networking and lifestyle engagement within a community created for women at different stages of their personal, professional and entrepreneurial journeys.

More Than Access to Finance

Money matters, but access to finance is only one part of the journey. Sustainable progress also requires knowledge, confidence, meaningful relationships and personal wellbeing.

HerFidelity addresses these interconnected needs through four focus areas, financial support, business education and capacity building, entrepreneurship support, and health and wellness.

Through FundHer, eligible women led businesses can access financing for working capital, asset acquisition and business expansion, subject to the applicable terms and requirements. This support can help entrepreneurs strengthen their operations, pursue new opportunities and position their businesses for sustainable growth.

However, capital achieves greater impact when women also have the knowledge to deploy it effectively. HerFidelity therefore connects women to training, mentorship and networking opportunities that can strengthen their financial and business decisions.

These opportunities can be just as valuable as funding. The right mentor can provide clarity during a difficult business decision. A trusted network can create access to customers, partners and new markets. Practical knowledge can help an entrepreneur avoid costly mistakes and build with greater confidence.

The inclusion of health and wellness also reflects a more complete understanding of success. Women frequently balance demanding professional, business and family responsibilities. Supporting their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing is therefore important to building sustainable achievement.

The Power of Community

The most compelling idea behind HerFidelity is simple. Women make greater progress when they have the right support around them.

A business owner may need financing today and mentorship tomorrow. A young professional may begin by learning how to manage money and later require a network to support her entrepreneurial ambitions. An experienced executive may need a platform through which she can share knowledge, mentor others and create opportunities for the next generation.

A strong community connects these women and their experiences. It allows knowledge to circulate, relationships to grow and opportunities to reach more people. One womans progress can inspire another woman, strengthen a family and create wider economic value.

This is how a banking proposition can become something more meaningful. It can become a platform through which women access opportunities, develop confidence and support one another.

A Smarter Choice for Women

For Nigerian women, joining HerFidelity is about more than choosing a financial product. It is about entering a community designed to recognise their goals and provide relevant support throughout their journey.

Whether the objective is to expand a business, improve financial confidence, develop new capabilities or form meaningful professional relationships, HerFidelity offers a platform for taking the next step.

The financial institutions that will matter most in the future are those that help customers translate money into meaningful progress. For women, that means access to finance supported by knowledge, networks, wellbeing and a community that understands their aspirations.

HerFidelity represents that broader vision. It recognises women as entrepreneurs, professionals, leaders and contributors to national development. It also acknowledges that when women receive the right support, the benefits extend to businesses, families and communities.

For women ready to build, learn, connect and grow, HerFidelity offers more than banking. It offers a community where ambition can find opportunity and where individual progress can become shared prosperity.

Leading financial institution, Fidelity Bank Plc, has announced the promotion of 433 employees through its 2026 Promotion and Notch Award Exercise.

Approximately 13 per cent of the Bank’s workforce benefited from the exercise, reflecting a steady increase from the 12 per cent and 11 per cent recorded in 2025 and 2024, when 376 and 337 employees were promoted, respectively.

The initiative reflects the Bank’s unwavering commitment to recognizing excellence, rewarding outstanding performance, and fostering a high-performance culture across the organization.

Since assuming office as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Nneka Onyeali Ikpe has overseen annual promotion exercises designed to recognise employee contributions, strengthen institutional capabilities and build a robust leadership pipeline.

Beyond promotions, Fidelity Bank has continued to invest in employee welfare through initiatives aimed at improving productivity, workplace satisfaction and overall staff wellbeing.

The Bank increased salaries across all categories and grade levels in 2022, 2024 and 2025. It also deployed staff buses to ease commuting, enhanced medical support and expanded learning and development programmes. In addition, the Bank extended its mortgage loan and home ownership scheme to employees from Assistant Banking Executive to Deputy Manager cadres, while increasing the applicable mortgage limits for qualified staff in line with current market realities. This positions Fidelity Bank among the few institutions that provide mortgage support to employees below the Manager cadre.

The Bank has also sustained initiatives that promote employee engagement, collaboration, work-life balance, professional certification, and continuous upskilling, underscoring its focus on building a motivated and future-ready workforce.

Industry observers note that these investments have helped reinforce Fidelity Bank’s reputation as a great place to work and a preferred employer within Nigeria’s financial services industry.

The 2025 promotion exercise reflects Fidelity Bank’s broader people strategy to attract, develop, reward and retain top talent by recognising discipline, professionalism, innovation, customer-focus and sustained performance, while preparing employees for greater responsibilities and strengthening the Bank’s position as an employer of choice.

Ranked among the best banks in Nigeria, Fidelity Bank Plc is a full-fledged Commercial Deposit Money Bank serving over 10 million customers through digital banking channels, its 255 business offices in Nigeria and United Kingdom subsidiary, FidBank UK Limited.

The Bank is a recipient of multiple local and international awards, including the 2025 Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) Innovation Award for MSME support; Best Retail and SME Bank Award from Independent Newspapers; Best Bank for Export & Trade Finance and Most Innovative Bank of the Year at the 2025 BusinessDay Banks and Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards; and Nigeria’s Best Private Bank at the 2025 Euromoney Awards. The Bank also received the inaugural Most Improved Commercial Bank of the Year award by Nairametrics, the SME Bank of the Year award by NewsDirect, and the Straight-Through Processing (STP) Excellence Award by Citi Group, in addition to recognition by Global Brands Magazine for Excellence in Community Empowerment.

The Police prosecuting counsel Stanley Nwafoaku from the Directorate of legal services of Federal Criminal Investigation Department of Nigeria Police Force Alagbon Ikoyi Lagos today, arraigned two ladies alleged to have considered together to cause the transmission of false publication concerning Access bank to the effect that the lender is shutting down its operations.

When the three count charge were read to them, the two Defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Thereafter Barrister Nwafoaku urged the court to remand them in the custody of Nigerian correctional services and fix a date for trial.

However,!Cyhtia Nwanpu who stood in for Ifenna Okeke counsel for both defendants, asked for a short date to file a formal bail application.

The presiding Judge,Akintayo Aluko, while remanding the defendants in custody of the Nigerian correctional services, adjourned till 25th of November 2026 for trial pending when the defence counsel should have filed bail application,!which will be given expeditious hearing.

The charge as filed before the court by the police prosecuting counsel.

FHC/L/CR/773/2026

COUNT ONE

That you. IDORENYIN SAMUEL UMOBH and FINENESS MONDAY ESU, on or about the 28th day of July 2026, in Lagos. within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired amongst yourselves and with other persons now at large to Knowingly transmit and cause the transmission of a false publication through the means of Computer systems and networks, concerning Access Bank Plc, to the effect that the Bank was shutting down its operations with effect from 23rd September 2026 and that all customers should close their accounts and withdraw their funds, and act done for the purpose of causing a break of law and order. and thereby committed an offence of Conspiracy, Contrary and Punishable under Section 27(1)(b) of THE CYBERCRIMES (PROHIBLIION, PREVENTION,ACT.) ACT, 2015 (AS AMENDED IN 2024),

COUNT TWO

That you. IDORENYIN SAMUEL UMOH and FINENESS MONDAY ESU. on or about the 28th day of July 2026, in Lagos. within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, knowingly and intentionally sent and caused the transmission, through Facebook and WhatsApp. of a publication, which you knew to be false, representing that Access Bank Plc was shutting down its banking operating effect from 23rd September 2026 and urging members of the public and customers of the Bank to close their accounts and withdraw their funds, an act done for the purpose of causing of breakdown of Law and order, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 24(1)(b) and punishable under Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015 (as amended 2024).

COUNT THREE

That you. IDORENYIN SAMIUEL UMOH and FINENESS MONDAY ESU. on or about the 28th day of July 2026. within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, knowingly of having reason to believe that the same was false. published and or reproduced a statement. rumour or report to the Access Bank Plc was shutting down its operations effective 23rd September 2026 and that customers should close their accounts and withdraw their funds. which publication was likely to cause fear and alarm to the public and disturb the public peace and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 59(1) of the Criminal Code Act, Cap. C38, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004,