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“
UBA has
Revolutionised
Banking in chad”
NOUBASRA NATOLBAN MD/CEO, UBA Chad
Iam the 3rd MD/CEO and a pioneer staff of UBA Chad having joined the Bank
in 2009. As the first staff of the bank, I
was part of the team that setup UBA in Chad so I had the privilege of seeing UBA born, crawl, walk, and now running. The coming of UBA drastically revolutionised banking in Chad. Professional banking practices only became visible when UBA emerged with its laid down procedures and policies.
Before UBA came, banking was prac- ticed the traditional way, bankers waited in their offices for customers to come
to them. Banking was seen more like a thing for the rich, only those who had much money were believed to own bank accounts in Chad. But when UBA Came, this paradigm changed. Relationship Officers were tasked to go to the streets, offices, neighbourhoods, etc. and scout for customers. Roadshows were organ- ised to foster product knowledge and open new accounts. Their performance was challenged through a daily report
to their supervisors. Through this, banking was demystified and even the common man on the street discovered the impor- tance of owning a bank account.
UBA positioned itself as a customer-cen- tric banking by creating Saturday banking. Competitors were awed by the revolution this new bank, at the time, was bringing into the Chadian banking system and had to sit up. It became an eye-opener for other banks, who quickly followed suit by sending their staff to scout for customers and also imposed Saturday banking which has now be- come the norm among banks in Chad till date.
UBA came with the introduction of a dress code and a lapel pin, this was new among bankers in Chad who before then, dressed in casual or traditional attire to office. UBA staff were admired for their outfits and dressing (suits). Other banks soon copied, they started wearing suits to office and two banks now use
lapel pin. Even in the utilisation of social media as a means of communication, UBA Chad is the first bank to own and operate a social media handle, later most of the banks followed suit with a timid presence on Facebook. UBA Chad still remains the leader in terms of follow- ers on the social media.
As at date, we still continue to scout for customers making us the bank with the highest number of customers and PBT (as at EOY 2018) placing us above banks who have been over 50 years in the market.
Having participated in the implantation of UBA in Chad, I can confidently say that UBA Chad has taken off from a very firm foundation with its digital banking products constituting a solid base. The rocket has been launched and not even the celestial space is our limit. We are out to conquer the market and position ourselves as the Lion King in the Chadian banking industry by 2020 and beyond.
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