First Bank of Nigeria Plc, has been rated by Global Finance (GF) as the "Best Bank in Nigeria, Best Trade Finance Bank and the Best Foreign Exchange Bank for 2007".

Also, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Nigeria’s largest bank, also bagged the Emerging Global Bank Award, beating strong contenders, JP Morgan Chase and Standard Bank. The awards were announced at this year’s World Bank/IMF meetings in Washington DC.

As the landscape of the African banking sector transforms rapidly towards increasing globalization, with key players jostling to broaden their horizon beyond national, sub-regional and regional boundaries, UBA once again made history, winning the first ever award in this category.

Oceanic Bank Plc also won an award at the event. In a poll conducted by GF, the international financial publication based in New York, with input from industry analysts, corporate executives and banking consultants and technology experts in 24 countries across the world, First Bank emerged the winner amongst 25 banks in Nigeria. It was the third consecutive year that First Bank would win the awards.