After 55 years in Uganda, Baroda is still going strong

 

Kamla Kant Shukla, the managing director

Bank of Baroda

 

Bank of Baroda is opening a new branch in Kawempe, a Kampala suburb. Ronald Kalyango talked to Kamla Kant Shukla the managing director about the bank’s journey in Uganda over the last 55 years

Question: How old is Bank of Baroda?
Answer: This was the vision of the late Maharaja Sir Sayajirao Gaekwad-III of Baroda, who founded Bank of Baroda on July 20, 1908.

From a humble beginning in Baroda (India) in 1908 to becoming a premier Indian financial powerhouse and India’s international bank, the bank’s 100 years of existence have been a story of vision, enterprise, financial prudence and corporate governance.

 

Bank of Baroda is established has branches in 25 countries, with special focus on Africa. Uganda was the second destination after Kenya where the bank started its overseas operations. Bank of Baroda opened its first office in Kampala in 1953 and today is celebrating 55 years of service.

 

How do you rank your contribution in Uganda’s economy?
Baroda stands for the safety of public money. Although many banks have failed over the years, Bank of Baroda remained financially sound and is committed to providing quality services to the nation.
Bank of Baroda was the first financial institution to be listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE).

The bank has paid dividends to the shareholders at 60% since 2003 that rose to 70% in 2006. The bank has been significantly contributing to the Ex-Chequer. As a good corporate citizen, Baroda is at the forefront on the social welfare, educational and sports activities.

 

How do you find the investment climate in Uganda?

To strengthen the economy, the Government has implemented Banking Sector Reforms. Stringent regulations were assumed and some of reforms took place in 2002 to strengthen the sector.

The increase in minimum capital requirements has led to the closure of weak banks. The reforms resulted in fall of non-performing assets level from 40% in September, 1998 to less than 5% today.

The Government has made continuous initiatives to attract the investors, like extending tax incentives and other concessions. In the 2008-09 budget, the Government announced exemption of import duty on milk tankers, hotel gym equipment, batteries, computer printers and telecommunication equipment and import duty on cement reduced from 40% to 25%.

 

How would you rate Baroda’s performance during the current financial year?

Our motto for the current financial year is “total customer satisfaction”. The bank has realised the motto and adopted new software “Finacle” for faster delivery of services. The bank also extended new liability and asset products to customers.

 

The bank has performed well on core business parameters, for example, credit, deposit and profitability during 2008. It has also surpassed the annualised net profit target of 25% and registered a growth of 28% by September.

Non-interest income of the bank increased by 30%. The bank also achieved 17% growth in deposit and 30% growth in advances for the period ended September 30.

What are your different products?

Our bank has a planning department to formulate strategy for the development of customer products.
The planning department consults the marketing, research and development teams are formulating various innovative schemes for of our customers.

 

What makes your products customer-friendly?
The driving force for our products is our relationship with our customers. Our staff, who are in constant touch with our customers, provide us with the information for development of the products.

We develop relationships to avoid the attrition of customers, to augur client base and to exploit benefits of business opportunities on the market. More so, the dynamics of competition are compelling us to concentrate on modern customer-centric initiatives.

We develop products for all strata of society and there is no gender discrimination in our products.
We also don’t believe in penalising the customers every time, which makes our products more customer-friendly.