Ecobank Sierra Leone Managing Director (Ecobank Sierra Leone)

Sierra Leone has a major potential to become a strong and stable economy in West Africa. However, there are still lots of challenges in the near future. Fro your viewpoint as head of a key player in the country’s economy, what are strengths making Sierra Leone a unique place for investments?

Sierra Leone actually does present a lot of opportunities because it is one of the West-African countries truly blessed with plenty of natural recourses including, of course, its people. The country has a fantastic climate: agriculture should thrive because the temperature does not get too hot or too cold; the natural recourses of the country are celebrated; Together with diamonds and gold in the past, more recently iron ore, rutile, bauxite, and a lot of rare earth metals have been discovered in Sierra Leone.

This is an investment destination due to the natural resources that the country has but also, the country having come out from difficulties, is determined to go back to the pre-Civil War days when it was known for its educational standards and its trade.

I think its strengths are enormous: it presents a not too big but not too small market and its location, close to Europe, also represents an easier access point making it easy for goods and tourism to arrive. The government is determined to make the investment climate easier in other to attract foreign direct investments into the country, as it happens with the Fast Track Commercial Court, shortening the turnaround time to register companies, adding that to the strengths of the country.


You have mentioned the Civil War but there is also the Ebola epidemic that has tremendous impact on this country, socially as well as economically. However, there has been a sense of recovery, do you feel this improvement in the economy here as a private company?

Yes. I was in this country throughout the Ebola epidemic, which was a very difficult time for the country because it came as a shock, it was not known to us and we had to struggle to get hold of it. It was violent, wild and it spread quickly affecting a lot of homes and lives, both socially and economically.

Unfortunately, it happened at the same time than the world commodity prices collapsed so the dual shock we suffered was really bad. In 2015, we already perceived some of these impacts, but in 2016 it was worse, when you actually felt the currency loosing value, when we felt the government’s revenue contracting having no choice but tightening the public expenditure just to get the economy back on track.

It had an impact on education as schools were closed for months. A lot of breadwinners died and there are a lot of Ebola orphans. It will take a long time for us to wipe off the stigma of Ebola. Therefore, socially it has had a major impact. Economically, it deeply affected the mining sector primarily because lots of investors left the country for their own security and, secondly, for the fact that there was an international downturn in the sector.

It obviously impacted the banking industry but it is now recovering. We have already seen the reopening of one of the two major mines and the work is quite advance to reopen an additional one, what will really help productivity and GDP growth. If we can achieve a 4 to 5% growth rate in 2017 as a country, it would be a good start.


The financial sector is quite strong and stable for such a small economy. It has also being a major supporter of the growth of the country. Could you give us an overview of the financial sector and what are its major strengths and weaknesses?

Sierra Leone is a small country with big potentials and I think that that is what attracts a lot of banks into the country. We have 14 banks: for a small economy like this you may think it is too many, but I in 2016 the entire banks’ turnout remained profitable. The banks are supporting the real sector at different levels. I think the regulators are in line with what needs to be done to ensure financial stability and the banks that may have straggled in the past years, have been given attention so that they get back to operate.

Some of the banks were helped to their stability to make sure they actually give out loans. For Ecobank, we were also quite active in supporting mining activities in the 2012-2013 boom and some of those companies had some defaults in the payment of those loans, which affected us. But we have been able to diversify: we believe in digital banking. We have a micro-finance outfit, we bought a pro-credit bank in 2010 here and we turned it into a profitable micro-finance bank. So we were able to support various sectors of the market, from the large cooperate to the micro one.

In Ecobank, we believe in training our people, we believe in using our wide network across Africa to bring on board more skills: not necessarily people, because we do not have lot of foreign workers within the bank, but to train our people; to give them the skills and the confidence in order to be able to understand what banking means and that the protection of the depositor’s funds are the primary responsibility of the bank. You use those funds to make money but you should ensure that when they want it, it is available.


Ecobank is well established in Africa, it is the Pan-African Bank. How have you managed in over 10 years to become such a strong player in this country?

I think we came with a strong brand but I also think that there was a lot of good will from the country. There are different kinds of banks in the market: foreign and local banks. But Ecobank is not only seen but also accepted as the Pan-African Bank. We were able to come in and demonstrate that we were interested in supporting the economy, for example on our assets book we have very small loans to individuals, to employees, to small businesses.

We showed our commitment that this is a Pan-African Bank. We are also very proud that the founding chairman of Ecobank group was a Sierra Leonean. I think the country also accepted the brand and the bank and believed that it can be a partner in economic development. Yes, we are a private commercial entity but it is not just the profitability of the business that is important for us but, actually, to ensure that we develop the people and the economy. Maybe that is why we have been successful thus far, but there is a whole long way to go and we can do it better.


Can you tell us about the future of Ecobank in Sierra Leone?

Ecobank is currently poised as the leader of the new way of banking, which is the digital banking. We believed that we will continue to grow our customer base in Sierra Leone by giving the customers what they need. We have seen the success of mobile money and we know that we have to change from the old fashion way of doing business.

We already have products that are designed to help us implement mobile money here. We just ruled out our moving app campaign, which speaks about doing banking differently: you do not have to hold cash and you do not have to be educated to bank. We want to show customers that banking is for them: it can get to you, and it can be as easy as the SMS you send on a regular basis; you can do it at the privacy of your home and the security of your phone. You do not need cash; you can pay your okada [motorcycle taxi] with your phone and the okada driver can accept it, getting confirmation that the money is in his account.

We also believe that we can use this digital fast way of moving money to encourage savings, because if you carry cash you are likely to spend it, but if it is in the bank, we encourage you to save it. We believe that one of the strong results of the digital drive is savings. We are going to target the student base making sure that they all bank and that they do it the modern way. We have segmented the country and we are going educate the whole market spreading the same message but in different languages to different segments of the population.

We know that the Central Bank is committed to this financial inclusion, as it is key in order to increase the banked population. They are also interested in reducing the cost of banking and we believe that going digital is the way. Building a branch is more expensive: you can roll out maybe 3 or 5 ATM for the cost of a branch and most of the people come to the bank for small transactions that they can make digitally.


What is Ecobank’s footprint here?

We have 15 outlets and 23 ATMs, targeting petrol stations and super markets.

We do not have presence in the East, so we are going to set up 2 additional ATMs there. We believe in the digital strategy but we have to make some physical investments that are in their way.


All these strategies you described is related to retail banking but what about corporate banking? How do you help companies in Sierra Leona to grow?

Regarding commercial and corporate banking, we have one of the most robust platforms allowing corporate to do full Internet banking. We try to ensure that 100% of our cooperate clients are on this digital platform, so you only come to the bank when you want to open an LC, but not just to do your transaction. Also, on the lending side, we do give credits to them.

Again, we use our footprint to manage them in the simplest way. Maybe a corporate is coming into Sierra Leone but they already bank with us in Senegal, so normally they will choose us and so we try to make sure that there are synergies within that framework, establishing a single relationship officer locally or a relationship manager regionally, so like if they are based in Ghana for example there is somebody in Ghana managing their business and coordinating with all the countries that they deal with.

 We also have the Paris and London offices where we manage most of the foreign businesses, for example the NGOs. Our colleagues there try to give them one platform, so if you have a transfer to four countries in Africa, you do not have to deal with Sierra Leone and then deal with Ghana and then Kenya: you can deal with the office in Paris and convert the money.

That is one of the benefits of the footprint that we have. We are very proud that most of the large cooperates in Sierra Leone are in our portfolio.

Considering the middle market, the local corporate or the SMEs, which is the strength of the Sierra Leonean market, we have a whole department that looks after them and relationship officers that understand what they need. To be honest I keep saying that you have the local cooperate SMEs and the MSMEs. The real SMEs, people who are just running a single shop, are still difficult to bring into the banking system because they believe that with the banking system comes visibility, which they want to avoid. So you have to be creative and try to see how they can be helped. As they get bigger and more established they want to transfer money offshore and they need the bank. Some of them use informal money transfer through people but you have to tell them about the risks involved. It is a continuous encouragement and educational process.


You have already mentioned that there are 14 banks in the country and that you have a number of competitive advantages compared to them. What are the reasons why the foreign investors should come and bank with Ecobank when they arrive to Sierra Leone?

I think our relationship management profile is sound.

In addition, our product package can meet their needs, especially if they do business in more than one African country and we are experienced enough to understand their needs. Some of them know that we can fall back on any of our brother banks to give them the support they need.


You are a woman in power, what is still very rare to seen in this country. What is the main challenge of your responsibilities as Managing Director of a big bank in Sierra Leone? Do you feel it is a challenging position for you?

I think that the Managing Director role is challenging. You are supposed to protect shareholders’ interest, make sure that all stakeholders’ needs are addressed and these stakeholders vary from the government to your staff. Sometimes there could be a conflict between what the shareholders want, your staff want, the government wants or the regulators demand. So the job of a Managing Director is balancing all of that to make sure that you have return for the shareholders, that you comply with all the local regulators and that you continue to engage, reward and motivate your staff accordingly because at the end of the day they serve your customers.

It is a challenging job anyways but more for a woman because sometimes, as women, we might find ourselves having to do more in other to be taken seriously. You have to make sure that you are respected for your brains.

I have always being in banker and being female baker is quite challenging; the more junior you are the more challenges you face because when you are a junior you are more vulnerable. I must say I have succeeded to a large extend and another part of my job that is important to me is to mentor younger girls because I know what it is to be a female in a bank. I always say that I could have done better as a banker if I were a man.


You have now been Managing Director for almost two years, what do you consider that has been your biggest achievement as Ecobank Managing Director in Sierra Leone?

We, as a bank, have succeeded in taking the traditional banking to digital. Now we are talking about the part where an okada driver could be paid through the mobile phone and this is one of our successes.

Also, we, the employees, are more comfortable and there are lots of professional encouragement and progress.

I took over as a Managing Director at a very difficult time in post Ebola 2015. It was very challenging and it was very important for us first to make sure that our staff was safe and, later, to make sure that the bank was sustainable and one of my first challenges when I came was to reduce our losses.

I continue to tell my people that they are the staff of one of the larger banks, which means a lot is expected from them. So we continue to train and invest on our people, every opportunity I have I use it to coach and mentor. We have also been looking at the image of the bank and on how people find and contact us.

We have managed the post Ebola situation, we have made sure that, regardless of all difficulties, the bank grew in 2015 and 2016. We have challenges but we continue to grow. Our policies and our procedures are in place, our people are being trained and younger people are being given more challenges and opportunities to grow. The bank continues to be the key reference for large corporate. We remain solid, our assets book is good, our deposit liabilities remain strong, and we change the way we were doing business internally to make sure we build efficiency.

Thinking about the future, my main challenge is cost management and cost efficiency because they are key. But I believe in my people and that you cannot succeed without them, so we will continue to motivate, train and find ways to remunerate them so they continue to be committed to this business.