Growing the Seed
| Franck Goore
20 •
The Lion King
• October - December 2015
2016
is the
takeoff year
F
ranck Etienne GOORE is a
highly experienced banker
with over 20 years of expe-
rience working with different
banks in West Africa. He has been
the Managing Director and CEO
of UBA Guinea since June 2014
and in this exclusive interview,
he tells LKM the challenges and
opportunities of operating in the
Guinean economy.
Franck Goore
MD/CEO, UBA Guinea
What are the challenges you face in
leading UBA Guinea and expanding
our market share?
The challenges are in four main
areas; the first is our inadequate
spread across the country. The fact
that UBA Guinea is not present up-
country is a real challenge to our
value chain strategy, especially for
local Corporates operating outside
Conakry. Another challenge is that
multinational Corporates operating in
the country expect that you engage
their Head Quarters before they deal
with you locally. That has made it dif-
ficult banking the big names in the
mining sector like RIO TINTO, ALCOA,
ASHANTI GOLD. Foreign exchange
scarcity and low banking penetration
as well as people’s preference for
cash than digital products are some of
the other challenges we have faced.
However, UBA Guinea, as a pioneer
in offering digital banking products in
the country, has taken on the chal-
lenge of reshaping behaviour and
encouraging Guineans to adopt our
innovative electronic products.
How did you cope during the Ebola
crisis that rocked Guinea and a few
other African countries?
The Ebola crisis that started in
for the Guinean
banking industry
November 2014 actually had a neg-
ative impact on economic growth,
which averaged 0.6% in 2014 as
against the projected 4.5% and 2.9% in
2013. Growth has picked up marginal-
ly in 2015 to 0.9%. Besides the deaths,
the Ebola crisis created a wait-and-see
attitude by the key investors mainly in
the mining sector, trade and transport.
It is worthy to note that UBA was the
first bank to show financial support by
donating $400,000 on behalf of UBA
Group Chairman, Tony Elumelu, to the
state and people of Guinea. Despite
the threat of Ebola, UBA Guinea was
able to sustain its financial perfor-
mance by increasing earnings, profits
and deposits significantly.
Guinea has now been certified Ebola
free. How is the business climate far-
ing?
We thank God that Guinea has been
certified Ebola free. The business
climate has not yet taken off with
the expected speed. However, with
the inauguration of President Alpha
Condé on December 21, 2015, the
expectation is that the economy will
pick up.
Can you tell us about the banking
industry in Guinea?
There are 16 local and international
banks operating in the Guinean bank-
ing industry currently. UBA Guinea is
relatively young having started busi-
ness in Guinea on 10th February 2010
under the leadership of a great Lion,
the late MD/CEO, Armand Drogba
(may his soul rest in peace). But we
have made significant progress. We
have moved so far from the 11th
position to the 6th position since
December 2014 out of 16 banks in
terms of total deposits. In addition,
we have moved to the 4th position in
terms of profit before tax and in the
top two in terms of productivity, profit
margin and return on equity in the
banking industry. Despite the huge
competition, UBA Guinea is positioned
as a Role Model in terms of customer
service quality, digital banking offer-
ings and efficiency.
Where are the economic opportunities
in the Guinean economy?
The key opportunities in the Guinean
economy are in the banking sec-
tor, where banking penetration is a
low 5%. Banking the huge propor-
tion of the unbanked population is
a significant opportunity. Also the
telecom penetration of 50%, against
banking penetration rate at 5% means
