Exclusive Interview: Mohamed El Kettani, Chairman and CEO of Attijariwafa  Bank Morocco

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Mohamed El Kettani, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Attijariwafa  Bank Morocco, grants an exclusive interview to Capital Markets in Africa. He shared with us his personal life experiences and leadership style as well as Attijariwaja bank’s long-term strategic plans to maximize profitability and enhance shareholders’ value. In addition, Mohamed viewed that Moroccan banking sector has achieved an impressive transformation over the two last decades, thanks to aggressive investment strategies in terms of branches network expansion and retail marketing that has led to banking penetration ratios at levels exceeding 60%.

Firstly, congratulation on your recently award as the 2019 African CEO of the year at the 7th edition of the Africa CEO forum. Can you tell our life experiences have influenced your leadership style and what is the most rewarding and challenging aspect of your job?

MOHAMED EL KETTANI: Let me first thank you for this opportunity to share our experience as a global pan-African bank. I have started my career in Banque Commerciale du Maroc (former name of Attijariwafa bank) 34 years ago at a time when our operations were mainly domestic, and the competition was relatively moderate. Since then, Attijariwafa bank has successfully engaged in a deep transformation, extending successfully its operations in 26 countries and upgrading its business model and profitability in every market of presence.

My personal belief is that leadership is a matter of attitude over the long run. I have always considered that the impossible can be achieved if we combine constant engagement, long term view, highly committed teams, and attention to details. More specifically, the most rewarding and challenging aspect of my job is to help our teams being fully empowered and make them « internal entrepreneurs » full of positive energy and boldness throughout the organization.

You champion the south-south cooperation, to catalyse opportunities for trade and investment on the continent you convey an annual International Africa Development Forum. What is the motivation behind the initiative and what are the achievements since its inception, please?

MOHAMED EL KETTANI: Since 2005, our group has engaged into an international strategy in order to grow our business in the Maghreb region and also francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, thanks to the strong support of our strategic shareholder, the pan-African investment Fund, Al Mada. It is also important to mention that the Moroccan private sector as a whole, has benefited from the vision of His Majesty King Mohammed VI in favour of the south to south cooperation, which has enabled many Moroccan companies to grow successfully their business in sub-Saharan Africa.

Our strategy has been successfully implemented in a timely manner and resulted in the acquisition of fourteen banks during the 2005 2016 period. Since then, we have started the second phase of our strategic-, which is to grow our positions in anglophone Africa, and have initiated the first move thanks to the acquisition of Barclays Egypt (now AWB Egypt).

The vision behind this growth strategy is that Africa offers tremendous opportunities related to various factors: demography and urbanization that translates into the emergence of a sizeable middle class, need for infrastructure and in particular in energy – transports – logistics sectors, industrialization imperative with opportunities to upgrade value chains. But Africa does also desperately need enhanced integration in terms of trade and investment, that may offer investors larger markets and economies of scale.

As a pan-African bank, we value all these opportunities and help our clients achieve growth scenarios in new territories, by putting ahead our capabilities in corporate and investment banking as well as in retail banking, and also provide investors tailored-made business platforms such as Africa Development Forum, which has gathered during the 2019 edition more than 2000 companies from 34 countries in order to seize business opportunities.

As a result, various success stories have emerged in renewable energy, infrastructure, industry, agribusiness among other sectors, with valuable impacts on local economies trade, and jobs creation.

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.