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Dele
No sorry I do not have a website for the Bank, but
I think that having posted it widely some one can find out for us what their
website is, and I think we must really learn that U.K. is not on our side.
But I am not going to go into that for now for I do
not think it is making sense to some of us.
Em
The
Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans
l'anarchie"
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 5:50
PM
Subject: [abujaNig] Re: [Ugandacom] THIS
IS WHY IDDI AMIN GAVE THEM 90 DAYS
Do you have the link to site of this bank? I think they
should be disbanded from operating anywhere in Africa. Complaints should be
sent to AU and ECOWAS. Don't they have charges they impose on customers for
administration? They are just being stupid and unnecessarily unreasonable.
Certain things need to change in Africa.
Dele
----- Original
Message -----
From: Edward Mulindwa
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ;
[EMAIL PROTECTED] ;
Rwanda ; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ;
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2003 10:49
PM
Subject: [Ugandacom] THIS IS WHY IDDI AMIN GAVE THEM 90
DAYS
Banking on the rich
in Africa
By Jo Foster
reporting from Douala, Cameroon
The UK bank Standard
Chartered has decided to turn its back on the mass market in Cameroon, with
its new policy of serving only the wealthy.
"If we were an airline," says
the managing director of the Standard Chartered bank in Cameroon, "we would
only take first- and business-class passengers."
Standard Chartered wants to go up-market
"If clients can afford to
travel in first and business class then they have a right to quality service,"
he says, "and it's the same for a bank."
Unfortunately, for the
British bank's existing "economy class" customers, this means they will have
to deposit over �2,000 before the end of the year or have their account
closed.
A glance into the
Standard Chartered branch in the commercial capital, Douala, proves that the
ambience is currently more economy class check-in hall than first class
lounge.
On the face of it, this is at odds with their public image
Dr Malaika Culverwell, Royal Institute of International Affairs
Clammy people fan themselves
with paying-in slips as they shuffle forward to deposit small cheques;
harassed tellers fill hold-alls with grubby banknotes destined for a cocoa
auction in the bush; while young men splayed across chairs beneath the air
conditioning start to snore.
It is an image the managing
director needs to shed. "Our target market is top end. That is,
multinationals, embassies, big NGOs, the government," says George Mortimer.
"So we need to maintain
service levels. Statements must arrive on time, staff mustn't get distracted,
someone important needs to be dealt with efficiently."
New rules, new image
So Standard Chartered in
Cameroon is effectively cutting off the mass market. Letters have gone out to
all retail customers advising that the new minimum balance for personal
accounts is 2,000,000 CFA (�2,200) and for business accounts 5,000,000 CFA
(�5,500)
Seventy percent of Cameroon's economy is from the rural areas... It is our
duty to help formalise this community - they need cash and they need know-how
Dr Simeon
Numdem
Afriland First bank
For a
vast majority of Cameroonians, that is an impossible figure. An accountant in
a mid-sized firm, for example, might expect to take home 400,000 CFA per month
(�440), so the minimum balance itself would represent half a year's salary.
Mr Mortimer is not
expecting many small clients to stay on board.
Part of the reason for
dropping the mass-market business is because most of the current customers
maintain a tiny balance but make many cash transactions - so generating high
traffic but low revenue for the bank.
"On the face of it, this is
at odds with their public image," says Dr Malaika Culverwell, a senior
research fellow in Corporate Social Responsibility from the Royal Institute of
International Affairs.
"Standard Chartered wants to be perceived as being socially responsible," she
says. "Their core values focus on emerging markets, ethics and being a friend
to small business."
Serving
or selling out?
The bank's
website trumpets its reputation as a bank which serves the African people.
"At Standard Chartered, we
are committed to the communities and environments in which we operate," it
states.
Credit groups have been a lifeline for rural entrepreneurs
"Our operations are focused on
the emerging markets... where we believe we can be a legitimate influence for
good."
Dr Culverwell
concludes that the bank may need to change its corporate image if it continues
to cold-shoulder the majority of the Cameroonian market.
Even its philanthropic
efforts - such as building a maternity hospital in the small Cameroonian town
of Foumban earlier this year - may not save its reputation.
As Dr Culverwell points
out, sustainable partnerships are preferable to one-off handouts when it comes
to earning brownie points.
No tailored service
For
many Cameroonians, the move will reaffirm a belief that European banks are not
specialised enough to cater for the needs of the African market place.
"You have to look at it in
the spirit of the local culture," says Dr Simeon Numdem, an economic
development expert with Afriland First bank, which was established in Cameroon
in the 1980s.
Most of Melong's inhabitants are subsistence farmers
"Seventy percent of Cameroon's
economy is from the rural areas and 60% is in the informal sector. It is our
duty to help formalise this community - they need cash and they need
know-how."
In Cameroon cash
is king, particularly in small business. A cocoa buyer, for example, has to
leave Douala armed with millions of CFA in hard currency when he travels to
farming villages.
It takes
time getting the cash from his account, he has to second guess exactly how
much is needed and he becomes an easy target for robbers.
Afriland has introduced a
system called Flash-Cash which allows customers to carry travellers cheques
which can be cashed at any branch and cancelled if they are stolen.
Dr Numdem claims this is a
"revolution" for small businesses in Cameroon. "In rural areas you find many
credit groups, often run by women, called 'tontines'. In the past there were
many hold-ups but now they use Flash-cash and it is safer."
Network banking
These tontines, which have
long been a lifeline for rural entrepreneurs, are growing into a more
formalised network of credit unions and becoming a significant force in the
growth of the economy.
MC2,
or Mutuelle Communitaire de Croissance, has 45 community banks which allow
locals to deposit cash, apply for low interest loans and make savings.
"It gets the money out from
under the mattress," says Isabelle Moses from MC2 in Melong, a farming town
150 kilometres north of Douala.
"The minimum balance for an
account is 5,000 CFA and many of our clients wouldn't be able to even open an
account with an international bank."
Back in the commercial
capital, personal account holders with Standard Chartered have until December
to raise �2,200 or take their business elsewhere.
Those who intend to save up
for the privilege of a first class service might want to consider aiming even
higher - for just �3,000 they could carry a cheque book from Coutts, Queen
Elizabeth's own bank in London.
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is
in
anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda
est dans l'anarchie"
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