Exclusive Interview: Abdulmajid Mussa Nsekela, Chief Executive Officer of CRDB Bank Tanzania

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Abdulmajid Mussa Nsekela, Chief Executive Officer of CRDB Bank Tanzania grants an exclusive interview to Capital Markets in Africa. He shared with us the CRDB’s long-term strategic plans to maximize profitability and enhance shareholders’ value. As well, the CEO opines that the Tanzanian Banking sector remains vibrant and has great prospects for the obvious reasons that it is at the center of the rapid economic growth being witnessed.

Thanks for granting this interview. Please, could you tell our readers more about your background, what motivated your choice of career path and what life experiences have influenced your leadership style?

ABDULMAJID NSEKELA: Well, thank you too for the opportunity. I am a career banker, with more than 21 years of industry experience and a passion for banking. I have worked in various capacities in Tanzania’s top Banks – started with CRDB Bank Plc in 1997 and then moved to NMB Bank Plc in 2008 and now back CRDB Bank Plc in 2018 as CEO.

Literally, I have spent my entire career life in banking. I chose Banking because I have a passion to serve. I believe that Banking, unlike many other professions requires a special skill in service, because it requires a lot of listening, understanding and making decisions that are not only balanced but also calculated.

This for me is what has inspired my general approach to solving problems. Often, a customer walks into a bank looking for solutions that address their financial need and they expect you as a bank officer to solve their problem, almost instantaneously. It takes a lot of patience and an inherent desire to serve to solve the many financial problems in our economy. This is my driving force.

Growing up in rural Tanzania and gaining exposure, both my academic and career life, I have learned a lot of lessons from successful leaders, mentors as well as real-life experiences, including failures, losses, wins, and success; that leadership is a quality that must be molded. I believe leadership has a correlation with opportunity and opportunity has a direct relationship with preparation. In most cases, education prepares us for the opportunities that life presents to us; but it takes commitment, discipline, and dexterity to gain leadership. But leadership, as a responsibility, requires more virtues, most important of which is understanding. This is the reason why I believe that leadership is humane and as a leader, it is important to give everyone under your guidance, an opportunity to grow, excel, learn and lead, among other things.

Very interesting. Now, let’s talk about CRDB Bank Group, 2018 saw some startlingly big numbers being posted, such as 78 percent growth in profit before tax, and about 8 percent growth in the net income. What are the fundamentals behind these headline numbers, please?

ABDULMAJID NSEKELA: As a business, we have made a deliberate decision to optimize our service delivery by enhancing operational efficiency. This is what has unlocked the Bank’s potential, because it has ironed out the shortfalls and loopholes that had, with time, become costly to the business.

The optimization involves deploying a more reliable technology and improving our core banking system, thus enabling the delivery of more convenience and flexibility for customers. We have also improved the management of our loans. Throughout 2018, we enhanced the quality of our loans and improved credit management practices. This is what has led to a significant decrease in our loan impairment charges. You will notice that, as a result of these improvements, our NPL ratio also improved significantly from 13.5 percent in 2017 to 8.5 percent in 2018, which was below the industry average.

Despite that, we had fully implemented the ninth International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS 9), which has had a significant bearing on the accounting of impairments and measurement of expected credit losses.

In 2018, we also focused on offering competitive lending rates, which to a larger extent, stimulated the growth of consumer loans as evidenced by a 7.9% increase reported. Strategically, we have initiated a raft of measures to improve management of costs and launched digital transformation initiatives, which are efficient, yet cost-effective.

In the long term, we want to leverage technology and take advantage of the opportunities presented by mobility. This is the reason why we are making strategic investments in digital banking and innovation. We currently in the second year of implementing our five-year strategy, which focuses on digitization among other strategies.

An extract from the INTO AFRICA June 2019 Edition: African Banks: Emerging Growth. To read the full exclusive interview, please download by clicking: INTO AFRICA PUBLICATION: June 2019 EDITION.