Barclays Bank Rising Star [interview]

Dec 03, 2007 (The Monitor/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- BCBEY | charts | news | PowerRating -- At 35 years, Mr Nick Mbuvi was appointed the managing director of Barclays Bank Uganda, becoming probably Uganda's youngest banking chief executive. After three and half years, Mr Mbuvi (38) has been transferred back to Nairobi. Business Power caught up with him and below, he tells his story.

You have been at the helm of Barclays Bank for more than three years now. How different are you leaving the bank from the way you found it?

When I came in, Barclays was a strong bank; however with lots of room for improvement and I am proud to say that during these three and a half years, I have not left any stone unturned.

When I moved here, we had a distribution of a mere 6 branches and we are now going to close the year at over 40 branches. In terms of products, I oversaw the launch of several market-relevant products as has been evidenced by the uptake.

We launched for example the VISA Electron debit & credit cards, an instant globally payment solution, we went for Small and Medium Enterprise lending, pioneered unsecured lending and we are now into mortgages and vehicle and asset financing.

I have also been able to oversee the transformation of Barclays from a Kampala bank to a national bank with the needs of every Ugandan at the core of our business.

Branch growth aside, I, together with my team have grown the balance sheet from just Shs300 billion to around Shs900 billion.

In short the achievements are several and I am sure that I am leaving Barclays in an even stronger position to take on the challenges of the future and deliver an even stronger value to its shareholders and customers alike.

What do you recount as some of the greatest moments at Barclays and the Ugandan banking industry in general?

I think the greatest has been the expansion as well as the integration and the opening of several new branches.

This has allowed us to play more roles in the lives of every Uganda and the Ugandan economic growth. This was of course propelled by the acquisition of Nile Bank and again I am happy that I managed to convince our shareholders to acquire Nile Bank. For me, that was a great opportunity.

What would you then say were your lowest moments?

Everyone's lowest moments especially at the managerial level is when things go wrong but what I can say is that things have largely gone on well on my side and I thank all my team for this.

Over the last months, since Barclays acquired Nile Bank, you have engaged yourselves in an integration process aimed at merging the operations of the two banks. How far has this process gone?

The integration process has been running for the last eight months and I must say it is progressing well. However, let me say that the integration has not been an easy thing.

What we have done is that we have basically streamlined products and services across the two networks. We now for example have a single credit approval process, whether corporate or retail and we have also brought together our risk management departments.

We have put in place a single management structure, we have one managing director, one head of operations,one person who runs retail banking, one person who runs commercial banking and one person who runs back office operations.

Because we are on two different IT platforms we have embarked on integrating that as well, so that customers can access banking services from any of the banking halls, and one of the reasons we delayed to do re-branding is that we wanted to make sure that if you put a Barclays logo on the former Nile Bank branches, then all our customers can be able to access seamless services.

We have now put terminals of Barclays in the former Nile Bank branches and terminals of Nile Bank in Barclays' branches. What this means is that any branch of former Nile Bank can serve Barclays customers as well while all Barclays branches can serve former Nile Bank customers.

We have also been able to complete re-branding of all former Nile branches to reflect the Barclays brand.

What we are now doing is integrating our ATM Network and by end of this month, that will be clearly integrated as well. All our customers will now have access to close to over 60 ATMS by the close of the year, and over 40 branches as we intend to open 7 new branches this December to add on to the existing 34.

Next year, by close of January, we shall finish integrating all the networks onto one IT platform and this should mark the end of the integration process.

All this expansion, where does this put you in the market?

From the service angle, it allows our customers for the first time, greater choice, flexibility and ease as our branches are spread all over Uganda. In the competitive sense, it makes us a force to reckon with on all fronts.

It is now no secret that we have moved from a Kampala bank to a national bank. By close of the year, we shall be ranked the second biggest bank in terms of footprint.

We shall also have the second biggest ATM network, and I think from a growth perspective we shall be moving close to having the second biggest customer base and I must say we shall not rest until we get to the top.

How much have you sunk into the integration as well as expansion process?

The integration process alone is going to cost not less than 1 million British Pounds (Shs3.5 billion) and our expansion may cost another 3 million pounds (Shs10 billion).

In total, we shall spend in the region of 4 million British Pounds (Shs14billion).

What are some of the glaring challenges that you have faced in the integration process?

When you talk of integrating organisations, you are talking of integrating people, their culture, their attitudes and their work ethic e.t.c.

These two institutions had different policies, cultures, management principles and different ways of doing things and an integration basically means streamlining all these differences and getting the two institutions to think and act like one.

It is imposing change and we all know that change has never been very easy. We had to map out a common goal so that the whole team understood the targets we were driving to. We had to agree on how we were going to serve our customers differently better and then from that, derive which practices and policies would get us there faster.

And that of course comes with its own challenges because you are dealing with people and not just systems.

Actually it is easy to integrate systems than it is to integrate people.

When you are dealing with people, you have to communicate all the time, explain this and that, explain why this policy is being changed and how that could affect them.

I am happy that we have gone through all this with minimal hiccups thanks to our people but most of all, the public that has been understanding.

How have you managed to skillfully balance the rapid expansion with all the internal challenges you mentioned?

I think it not been easy but I think the key lies in maintaining the focus.

What we would do is that on a weekly process, we would have a steering committee that met to remove any blockages and basically drive the whole process. It took a lot of devotion.

How has Barclays been received by both former Nile Bank customers and the new customers in the places you are opening new branches?

The reception has been good because if you look at our balance sheet you see figures reminiscent of happy customers.

For example, with the former Nile Bank customers, we have demystified the notion that we are an expensive bank. That we have clearly demonstrated through our products, for example the single-fee account that is one of the most affordable products on the market. In terms of the new branches, the reception has been great.

For example within three months, almost 80 per cent of all the new branches have all crossed the Shs1 billion mark in deposits, and each one has opened at least 2,000 accounts and right now, some of them are crossing the 3,000 accounts mark which is a tremendous because we opened the first new branch in late June.

What does this tell you about the potential of the market?

I think it shows the market still has lots of opportunities if only we can actively think of ways to tap into them.

In some of the places we have gone into, we have banked populations that have never even opened an account before and that tells you that these people were waiting for a bank that would suit their needs.

That is what we want to position Barclays as.

Is this a party that is going to be spoiled by the competition?

I still think that those players who will deliver on customer value and be innovative are going to be the winners of the day. Of course what competition is going to bring to the market is the provision of more value for money and I think it will force the market to be more innovative.

Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets -- Free Newsletter

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index