Development only has 35 percent with a management contract. The majority shares are owned by members of the independent SACCOs who became shareholders of the bank when we took over. Rabo Development came in with an investment of more than 6 million Euros in addition to 4 million Euros from the Dutch government. We have not more than seven Rabo Bank staff offering temporary assistance from Rabo in Holland and other Rabo partner banks on the Continent; the rest of the staff is local or from the region. Basically the team we have on the ground is very small which is essentially because Bank Populaire is and has to remain a Rwandan bank. It is a huge task – the first year 2008 was all about taking control and 2009 was a big clean up year; cleaning up our balance sheet. The first year we made more than Rwf2 billion in profits. Last year we took a drastic approach to go deep into the credit portfolio and reclassify all of the assets. This pushed up our Non Performing loans (NPLs) ratio but at least this was a real picture of what the real situation was. We have written off more than Rwf1billion from the balance sheet which dates back as far as 10 years. I can safely say that the figures before 2008 were not so reliable to say the least. We have cleaned up the whole portfolio and put in place a completely new banking general ledger system including installing new banking software (T24) – state of the art, expanded the branch network (189 branches now ), rolled out a new human resource management structure with job descriptions, targets and appraisals that allows staff to receive bonuses. We are connecting as many branches as possible (currently 36 branches are connected) but we are hampered by what MTN, Rwandatel and Tigo can offer. We are even considering satellite technology because the more branches you have connected, the more control you have over the network. This reduces the risk of fraud and greatly increases customer care service to clients. TSM: Poor customer service is still a huge challenge in both public and private sectors in this country, how is the Bank tackling this issue? BK: In the past we did not even have a customer care department. So we set it
up and trained customer care officers. We also train all our commercial people in customer care actually explaining what true service delivery is and making them live up to it because service levels in general in the banking industry were extremely low for a variety of reasons. This is not just a Bank Populaire initiative, but that of the whole banking industry through the RBA (Rwandan Bankers Association). We are working on reducing the queues, rolling out more electronic products like mobile banking, expanding our ATM network; we are doing almost everything to increase service levels to the client. This is nationwide effort. TSM: The misconception about customer care has been that many people think it has got more to do with courtesy (smiling, greeting a customer), yet customers or clients are always looking for value for money. What is your view? BK: Customer care is about efficiency. It is about understanding the concept and making sure that the customer gets the service that he/she needs and you must be able to deliver it. And you can only deliver it only if you have the right tools such as good automation, the right organization, good structure and the right mentality. Rwanda is not a very service minded society – you see this when you go to the supermarket or the banks, but it is changing rapidly. I just renewed my work permit – it was amazing; state of the art automation, very fast and efficient. I think a lot of the improvement has to do with the establishment of the East African Community because service delivery levels in Kenya, Tanzania or Uganda are higher. This is a very promising development. We are doing our best, this is not a fast process, but by the end of next year we will have something like 100 ATMS. In one month’s time we will roll out mobile banking for approximately 300,000 and these clients will not have to come to the bank any more for transactions. Watch this space; you will not recognize this bank in three years time. TSM: What is the major challenge affecting service delivery in the financial sector? BK: Shortage of skills in the industry; the
“... we are doing almost everything to increase service levels to the client. This is nationwide effort. “ level of people that we are hiring from cashiers to junior staff is still low because they have not been properly trained. We have to train all the people ourselves and then they get “stolen” by the other banks and we have to train again and again. We (Bankers) are setting up a Banker’s institute under the Bankers Association where we are going to train our own people to give them certificates as cashiers, credit officers etc. This will lead to much higher professionalization of the industry. TSM: Future plans; what big plans or projects are in the pipeline? BK: We are restructuring all our branches ; we have already done 10 branches – totally redone and not just repainting - a new customer client guiding system – electronic , customer care , reception ,commercial officers etc. These branches offer a much better “look & feel”. That combined with full ATM service and full model banking; this is a radical change across the board We have just set up a call centre with international expertise to facilitate our clients. TSM: On a lighter note, who is Ben Kalkman? BK: I am Dutch. I grew up in Caribbean and South America. I have 18 years experience in international banking in ten different countries. Rwanda is my first job in Africa. My work style is probably too egalitarian for Rwandan standards. We work in management teams; I do not like to take decisions alone. There is a senior management team and we do many things in committees. I believe in leading by example – so what we expect from people we have to demonstrate ourselves and of course delegate and train at the same time. TSM
The SERVICEMAG September - November 2010 | 13