There is a new bank in town called Access Bank, which was issued with a provisional licence by the Bank of Namibia. New Era journalist Paheja Siririka (PS) engaged the Head of the Access Bank Namibian project, Oluseun Onasoga (OO), on their operations in Namibia, and their niche in the sector. Issues discussed include the approach to interest rates, bank charges and transaction costs, slow banking services, and steps to ensure online fraudulent activities are curbed. Namibia has become the 16th country in which the bank operates. 

PS: What attracted you to the Namibian banking market? 

OO: The Namibian market is strategic if you consider its geographical location, and its position across other southern markets, which gives you a context of what Namibia could be. The southern region is well integrated, but Namibia has a significant potential for regional influence, not only within the southern region but also in the upper part of the eastern region. 

From a maritime perspective, Namibia has one of the shortest time-frames for goods to exit the port across all the markets. If you look at trade, Namibia could also be a regional influence. The economic situation, political stability, jurisdictions, and justice create a strong argument for businesses to set up here. 

Stable electricity and product factors of production are also available. It then gives an opportunity from a corporate perspective to dwell in Namibia to do an expansion. If you look from a continental trade agreement, it does also mean for businesses where you’re looking within the southern region, it makes a perfect location business-wise, looking at these economic indicators. 

PS: What will you offer that would be different from the existing banks? 

OO: For us, it’s speed. I would have used the word service, but I will use experience, and we are deliberate about the word experience. That is very important with how we interact with our customers, regardless of the type of customer. Security is important; we will ensure that customers feel safe. Here, we are not only talking about physicality and that your money is safe but also ensuring that the money does not depreciate. Sustainability is key because we don’t want to be a bank that will not be around the following day. I think beyond that, what you see is that it’s providing an opportunity where everybody can build financial freedom, and with financial freedom, we are saying, how can we be of value to the sole proprietor who is by the street and selling every day in which she knows that with this amount of money, she is making every day, she can put it in the bank and it grows? 

PS: There have been complaints that foreign-owned companies do not have the best interest of the people at heart. What is Access Bank going to do to ensure that your presence in the country does benefit the locals? 

OO: I think if you take a step back, the question would be, What does the market want? What is the market looking for in a bank? What are their aspirations in terms of a bank? 

There is a place for value, partnership, and ease of doing affordable banking. What we are also very much aware of is the conversation around cost, around access to banking, so it’s not even access to finance, access to banking. The conversation around why we have to wait for 24 hours before payments can move up and down after a while. The conversation around why wallet to bank, bank to wallet across banks cannot occur, and that’s what we hope to bring into the bank as we continue to unfold. 

We are concerned about the SMEs and to see how we can provide financing to them within a risk-moderate appetite that ensures that they can do what they need to do to win without the full spectrum of how typically banks will act. What you see also is that for the local corporations, we’re asking the question to go beyond Namibia, and that’s important for us because we think that there are significant things that Namibians are doing. For example, a lot of the western, southern, and eastern markets eat some of the produce that comes here: fish and beef. That can be an export commodity that brings returns here, so we are looking at where those opportunities are being done. Infrastructure, how can we help the government to accelerate the process? How can we use digital to embrace the young minds that exist? We have what we call the African FinTech Foundry, which is an entity that Access Bank Holding has, that goes around supporting initiatives that help innovation at scale. 

PS: How does Access Bank approach interest rate charges and transaction costs? 

OO: One of our mission statements is setting the standard for sustainable business practices, and the reason why we must state that is that sustainability is not only in what we understand in people and profits but also in creating sustainability. Sustainability is also ensuring that the communities that we serve can always be able to plan for tomorrow. 

If you don’t build an affordable sustainable practice in terms of interest rate charges and all the rest, what you’re creating is a silo. If you do not pay attention to what you’re asking for overall and how you’re doing things, you will have a problem. So, affordability is critical to us. 

The interest rate will ensure that it’s affordable because what you want is that the customer who was able to pay for his loan will come back to take another one. If the customer is overpriced or illegally overpriced, you’ve created a situation where he wouldn’t be able to pay, and that’s not the essence of banking. 

So our approach is to ensure that we want to create sustainability, and it’s built around our mission, which is setting standards for sustainable business practices. 

PS: Briefly take us through your corporate social investments; what can Namibians benefit from you setting up a branch here? 

OO: The corporate social investment of the bank is multifaceted. If you follow the group entity, we are very particular about education hence we raise funds for children who are not able to have access to education, we build schools and classrooms. We are entrenched in multiple facets of CSI. We also encourage our employees to independently think of differences they can make. What I’ve noticed about Namibians is that they are also knowledgeable and take education seriously because almost every second person you see has a master’s degree. Hence we have decided to take this education very seriously plus Namibia is a beautiful country and a good ground for research. You find interesting courses that exist at universities here. You will see us in start-ups and digital innovation and create hubs. 

PS: What is more important for you to serve your customers: more staff or technology? 

OO: We see this as a balance because, if you look at the Access Bank, we have 700 branches. This is all about human interaction, and even if you look at robotics, it’s a simulation of human interaction, and that is still important, but there is a place for digital technology as an enabler to serve and, more importantly, to reduce the cost to serve. 

PS: How is Access Bank going to ensure that it remains competitive in this market? 

OO: I believe that for us, we will always be attentive. We want to be a bank of impact, and you can only make an impact if you are relevant, and that means our overall ambition is to be one of the top banks that people would call. 

PS: How will you ensure online security is top-notch and that Namibians’ money is safe? 

OO: Actions and results are more powerful than words. We sit in 16 markets on three continents. A review also confirms that there hasn’t been any security breach and we have created a very well-structured security within the institution to ensure that our apparatus and equipment are safe. We will use top-notch soft and hardware to not only protect the data and privacy of Namibians but also the information. We have 60 million customers and that means security is paramount.