Managing Director (Ecobank Rwanda LTD.)

The Republic of Rwanda is currently going through a transformation from a middle income to a high-income economy, positioning in the top 3 best countries to do business in. What needs to be done in order to maintain this growth?

The main challenge that Rwanda is facing is capacity. The government needs to emphasize on high and technical education and this way improving the capacity of the people of the country making the investment sustainable; otherwise, all this would fall apart in some years. Right now, the government is counting on expatriates to make those changes but it will be a time when the people of Rwanda will have to take ownership and take over the country needs in terms of skills.

The financial crisis has affected worldwide economies on their different sectors. In the case of Rwanda, what were the main effects of the crisis in the financial sector and how did you handle them?

Rwanda has been affected due to the low demand coming from abroad. When this financial crisis arrived, for the main exports of Rwanda, which were tea, coffee and mining products, the price dropped in the market, so that meant low revenue to the country which resulting on a direct impact to the business community and the liquidity of the country, making also evident that the depreciation of the currency for the past two years has been faster than the previous years. We used to have an average of the precision of 1% or 2% per year and now we are around 5% to 6%, so that has made imports more difficult because of the price of the goods.

Also, availability for foreign currency has affected the country’s development because there was less investment into the country and that has slowed down the economy growth in 2013 and less in 2014. When those challenges appear, they bring high unemployment, inflexion and also low perceptions.

The worst period was 2013 and early 2014 but since then we have seen some improvement, specially during the last quarter of 2014 and the expectations for 2015 show that we will have a normal growth of 7% to 8%.

Ecobank was established in 1985 and up to date is the leading pan-African bank with operations in 36 countries across the continent. What do you think the key to this success?

First of all, we are focused. We have concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa market and develop a specific knowledge; which has allowed us to grow and expand from West Africa to East and Southern Africa. On the other hand, we did not try to compete with foreign banks in highly sophisticated transactions, rather than that we have focused on the local market and local corporations, promoting investment and developing the products, all this while staying close to the market and adapting to them.

The second asset is the people. We have made a lot of investment in trainings and capacity and the group has been investing for the last twenty years in developing the skills of its staff.

Finally, we have focused in creating a good platform, a good system in which we have made a lot of investment to make it unique and efficient for the business community needs.

Ecobank arrived to Rwanda in 2007. How would you describe its evolution over the years?

Back in 2007, there was a bank which was totally bankrupted and with problems on its supervision. That is when we came and from 2008 to 2011, we turned around this bank, we have to clean it up, retrain people and realign the business’ strategy. It was a very difficult year and nobody believed that we could be capable of making it possible but now we have a very strong brand into the market and we have a very active participation on the growth of this country.

For the last 20 years, the number of commercial banks in Rwanda has grown significantly, from three in 1994 to ten in 2015. What is your client segment target?

Local corporations. Our business model is divided in three segment markets: multinational, local and retailed. Multinationals are very few in Rwanda since it is a small country, so the main market is the local and the SME, that is in which we are focusing on. With retailed we are not yet there, despite the government is pushing for financial inclusion and we had made a good network, but the middle class is not yet ready. And so, we have not focused a lot in that market but we have put in place the electronic banking, ATM, mobile banking, to serve the retail business. But finally, our efforts go to the local market, to the local corporations.

What is your strategy to present the bank and reach this market?

We have all the products needed for this sector. The first one, we have very good trade finance, Rwanda is a country with lots of importations and also exports to sub-regions, so we are very strong at trade finance with the 40% of the marketship.

The second sector, we have a very small industry in which we are focusing on so we work with financial institutions to have long term resources like Europe Investment Bank in order to search for capital and be able to finance the needs of the small industry that is starting to develop in Rwanda such as construction materials, tea and coffee sector…

And the third sector that we are working on is agro processing. There is a huge potential for agro processing because we have a good environment for doing business, so it is easy to invest in the transaction industry. Due to that, we are looking for a key sector, which could be rice, tea or coffee or even some others like fruits.

Mr. Guerard, from a more personal perspective now, you have been in Rwanda for four years, how would you describe this experience and how did it impacted in your career?

Very challenging because I came during the toughest period for the bank, it was a period when the bank was on the verge of collapsing so I had t restructure and recapitalize, recover bad loans, etc. The non-performing portfolio at that time was 37% and today we are at 6%, which as been a great achievement.

I the past four years we had positioned the bank as one of the big ones of the market; we have the strongest brand and one of the key players in Rwanda, where we are also recognized as the only international bank within the country. We have competition, but they are all local and regional banks. Talking about my career, I believe here in Rwanda my job is done and it is now time to go and take a new challenge.

To conclude this interview, Mr. Guerard, our readers are interested in the company, but also in the leader we interview. In this context, what message would you like to send to our worldwide readers of eBiz Guides?

Rwanda is a land of opportunities; a well organized and structured country where it is easy to do business. The challenges that someone can face in other countries are not in Rwanda, because here there are the authorities to regulate the system and they are always really ready to assist investors to achieve their goals. This is a unique condition in Africa, to find people whose main purpose is helping investor to achieve their targets. Even though there are other challenges, that makes the path much more easier.

The second thing is the geographical situation of Rwanda. From this country it is easy to access different and neighborly markets such as RDC, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya or Burundi. With a regional view, if someone is looking to do business, the best place to be established in is Rwanda because you can make investment in a very good environment and reach also the surrounding markets. There is a great networking service, good roads, and lots of facilities in communications with the West Africa countries. In addition, regulation is open among them for trade finances; capital transfers… something that makes the regional business very convenient.

Ecobank is present in all those countries, so once you establish yourself in Rwanda you can make your collection and your bank management easy, convenient and affordable to reach either your clients or your suppliers.