20 •
The Lion King
• July - September 2015
Ask the Executive
| Chukwuma Nweke
Head, Group Operations
Chukwuma
Nweke
Chukwuma Nweke, Head,
Group Operations at UBA is a
consummate banker. For 23
years, he has worked in all the
key areas of banking includ-
ing Financial Control, Credit,
Strategy, Trade Finance and
Operations. A thoroughbred
professional, he is also a mem-
ber of the Institute of char-
tered Accountants of Nigeria
and Honorary member of the
Chartered Institute of Bankers
of Nigeria. In this interview, he
gives us some insight into the
support services operations of
the UBA Group.
The back-office functions of a bank
are often hardly understood, can you
give us an insight into what your work
entails?
I prefer to call the work we do a ser-
vice or support function. We ensure
the sales and service promises are
met. It is an exciting part of the bank.
We serve our customers. We deliver
on the promises our sales and frontline
officers make to our customers. We
equally ensure the customers pay for
the services we render.
In addition, we are the gate keepers
and the first line of control.
When you assumed this function, what
were the challenges you observed,
what strategy did you adopt to over-
come these challenges and how far
have you gone in overcoming them?
This is my second coming to UBA Plc.
It was easy to adjust. I know my way
around and I am privileged to have a
great team. The team has a long list
of great initiatives that are on ground
and we are currently focused on
executing them because we have
enough ideas on the table.
We have achieved significant chang-
es in the area of service improvement,
cost optimization, productivity and
control enhancement.
Talking about efficiency, what initia-
tives have you taken to improve Turn
Around Time (TAT) of the bank’s oper-
ations?
I inherited a great team with ideas
in all aspects of operations; cus-
tomer service improvement, control
enhancement, cost optimization, rev-
enue enhancement and staff devel-
opment.
A key initiative was to migrate custom-
ers to the electronic channels. The
service level agreements (SLAs) on the
channels are shorter and very predict-
able. In most cases, the platforms are
self processing, which makes them
very cost effective.
How do you synchronize operations
management across the 22 countries
where UBA operates?
With large Operations across 22 coun-
tries you have to manage with metrics
and technology. We have indicators
(lagging and leading) that are point-
ers to what is going on in each coun-
try. You need to read these signals
correctly and intervene when things
are not going right.
In addition, we have officers on
ground who manage our operations
in each country on a day to day basis.
We review our performance weekly
through a conference call. Planned
visits to each country and branch are
very important and provide excellent
opportunity for on the ground assess-
ment of how things are. The visits pro-
vide great opportunity to meet with
the front line officers.
Different African countries have differ-
ent banking regulations and operating
models; does this hinder the model
of centralizing the bank’s operations
across all the African countries?
The different banking regulations do
not impact on the model of central-
izing some key banking operations ser-
vices. Centralization helps in standard-
ization, cost optimization; it enhances
compliance and controls and helps
in quick deployment of products and
services.
We aremindful of the different banking
regulations across Africa. We provide
for the different regulations in handling
transactions across the countries we
provide centralized services in Africa.
Training of staff involved in this area is
very important because we take com-
pliance with regulations very seriously.
What is your approach to leadership?
It is important in leadership to have the
confidence and respect of the people
you lead. You have to be knowledge-
able, fair and firm. You have to be
