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I am very happy to be in a position to
nurture the next generation of Lions and
Lionesses from UBA Liberia. I feel highly
fulfilled seeing younger staff that I inter-
viewed as ETs now performing success-
fully both in UBA and in the industry as
business leaders. This truly is fulfilling.
LK:
What are your hobbies?
CM:
I love aerobics and dancing. I read
and I love to listen to news channels
.
LK:
How do you maintain a healthy
work life balance, especially balancing
work and family life?
CM:
This I must admit is a challenge.
The demands and work load eats into
family time. However, I try to take a
family vacation annually as the job ac-
comodates especially now that all my
lovely children are in their teens before
they overgrow me!! My family have in-
deed shown extreme understanding
and support.
LK:
Since the launch of the first ever Libe-
rian Dollar ATM machine was heralded
with positive commendation, what has
been the impact of this initiative?
CM:
This has significantly helped to con-
trol crowd in our cash economy and
redefined our service standard. This has
also distinguished UBA as the leading
bank in product and service innovation.
We were indeed recognized by one of
the local and leading papers as the best
bank of the year based on product and
service offering.
Liberia. All the key economic sectors are
poised for explosion especially in Upstream
Oil & Gas, Mining, Agriculture and Forest-
ry, supporting the healthy growth forecast
of approximately 9% for the new financial
year.
LK:
How do you view the introduction of
the Africash, Afritrade, and Africard prod-
ucts to the Liberian market and what has
been the responses from people?
CM:
The products have been well received
although the sheer volume of transaction
is affected by the very small market of just
four million in population. We believe that
the full launch of the Africard(Visa Pre-
paid) this year 2012 will help consolidate
this unique product offering not just across
our nineteen African locations but also into
Europe, America and the rest of the world.
LK:
How well will you rate the performance
of our e-products in Liberia?
CM:
We have made very reasonable
achievements and will do much more as
the interconnectivity among banks open
up in the years ahead.
LK:
How do you motivate staff to achieve
their maximum potential in meeting set
targets?
CM:
I have had to do a lot of motivational
talking both in a Town hall meeting setting
and individually to rebuild personal con-
fidence and collective team work. Also,
staff who exhibit exemplary achievement
are commended and rewarded financial-
ly. In this new year we expect to do more
social bonding and continue to hold our
TGIF every end of quarter.
LK:
What would you say have been your
best and memorable moments in UBA?
My best moments in UBA have been
countless. I have appreciated Manage-
ment recognition of my humble contribu-
tions both personally and as a team and
the rewards in higher responsibilities. I be-
lieve very strongly in the UBA dream and
LK:
How has it been managing UBA Libe-
ria?
CM:
I came into UBA Liberia at its most
challenging time, but the experience has
been most rewarding. Being my first Afri-
can experience outside Nigeria, I had first
to adjust quickly to the culture of the won-
derful people of Liberia, understand their
psyche and appreciate what matters most
to the people and then be able to blend
it into the product and service offering of
UBA to drive the best results from my team
and the environment. The experience has
been hugely transformational and re-
warding.
CM:
What is the competitive landscape in
Liberia like and how are you able to differ-
entiate the UBA brand in the market?
Liberia being a post conflict location, is go-
ing through a period of massive rebuilding
and repositioning both in the Financial sec-
tor and the economy at large. This has re-
stricted the operation of banking activities
as we do not have a fully developed mon-
ey market as well as treasury activities.
The competition amongst banks is there-
fore very tight as our customers are largely
homogenous. This calls for high level of
creativity in our product and service offer-
ing. This has also helped immensely to sus-
tain our strong brand in the market.
LK:
The democratic transition in Liberia
is seen as a positive development inter-
nationally. What are the sentiments on
ground and what do they portend for busi-
ness?
CM:
Liberia has experienced its fair share
of conflicts arising from democratic elec-
tions in Africa. We are happy that the last
election was adjudged peaceful and fair.
The amiable President Ellen Sirleaf (the
first and only female President in Africa) is
settling into a second term of six years, a
continuity of which will help harness the
gains of her first term and sustain the confi-
dence in the international donors and FDIs
to continue to support the re-birth of our
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