The Rwanda Bankers‘ Association acts as a forum for the banking sector in the country.

All banks licensed by the National Bank of Rwanda pursuant to Chapter II, Article 5 of the Law are eligible members of this association that has made great strides towards developing and offering great services in the banking sector.

“As the year 2015 comes to an end, I am pleased to say that RBA has registered significant developments,” said Maurice K. Toroitich, Chairman of RBA, and also Managing Director of KCB Bank Rwanda in his remarks during the bankers’ gala dinner at Serena Hotel Kigali early this month.

Guests at the glamourous ceremony included bank executives, stakeholders, partners, and bank employees.

The association has a number of objectives but it mainly seeks to promote standards of professional competence and practice among its members.

The Rwandan banking sector has continued to invest a great deal in building a world class banking sector with the best human resource capacity in order to make banking even more accessible to the public.

“We aim at rendering assistance and to provide various widespread services to members and to the banking industry by developing and putting into practice new ideas and innovations in banking services, operations and procedures on top of promoting advance planning for the introduction of new systems or services in the banking industry,” Toroitich explained.

The developments include embanking on and embracing technology as a means of extending banking services to the unbanked persons.

“For this reason we want to get close to our technology partners like MTN who are indeed our great sponsors tonight for the key role they play in providing the platforms and technologies that we need to be able to provide our services,” he said.

According to Toroitich, the RBA is pleased to note that even though profitability in banks continues to be saddled by high operating costs and non performing loans, profitability in the banking sector is significantly improving.

“This is indeed quiet critical and important to sustain for the sake of stability of our sector and ability of banks to attract capital for further extension,” he said.

“It is important to also note that credit to the private sector has continued to expand and this expansion, with no doubt contributes to the growth of the economy that the country continues to experience from time to time in particular towards the achievement of EDPRS.”

He noted that human resource development remains a big area of focus and for this factor RBA is presently working and thanking stakeholders who are working with it to pave the way forward in creating a professional institute of bankers to help in the development of professional banking.

“This will complement other programs being undertaken by different banks to develop their own banking staff,” said Toroitich.

Challenges

Fraud remains a big challenge in the banking sector and while the RBA greatly commends all law enforcement organizations who take role in combating fraud and any other forms of criminality, it is optimistic that there is more that can be done by banks as individuals and other stakeholders to deter fraud in the sector.

This will not only reduce the amount of losses in the banks but also will create a higher level of confidence that the sector needs in Rwanda to compete for global capital and investment.

It is notable that Rwanda is going through a face of rapid investment and growth and therefore demand for credit far exceeds local supply of resources in form of savings.

In this regard, banks have a big challenge of educating the public to save, but also bring to the market appropriate saving and investment solutions to tap into the large pool of cash that is still sitting out of the banking system so that to ensure sustainability of investments and credit of the banking sector.

“We believe that the continued transformation of the local private and public sector payment system from cash based to a non cash payment system will help in accelerating progress in this area,” said Toroitich.

“On behalf of the Banking Association in Rwanda, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to His Excellence the President of the Republic of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, for his role in positioning Rwanda as a great investment destination, and most of all for his leadership that has enabled the business community in Rwanda to commit capital for the future of our country,” he says in conclusion.

During the dinner, the Honorable Minister of Finance and Economic Planning Amb. Claver Gatete applauded the association for the tremendous development in the sector, citing the impact of the recent implementation of ICT in the banking system.

“What looked very new in the banking system before is now a common aspect in the whole country, taking examples of mobile banking and e-banking which are now everywhere in the country,” he said.

The Minister also thanked the association for implementing various reforms especially in the aspect of customer service which has greatly improved service provision in the sector and also promised continued support from the government of Rwanda to ensure further future developments in the sector.

  • BY HOPE MAGAZINE