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DR CONGO - Finance

Francesco De Musso

General Director, BGFIBank

Bio

Francesco De Musso has been the Managing Director of BGFIBank RDC since July 2021.
He has over 20 years of experience in international finance, particularly in management, internal auditing, and banking risk management. He began his professional career in financial auditing at the Paris-based firm Mazars. He then joined the banking division of the American conglomerate General Electric as an Audit Team Leader, later moving to the French banking group BPCE “Banque Populaire Caisse d’Epargne” as Director of Internal Audit and Director of Risks. In 2013, he joined the BGFIBank Group as Inspector General in charge of the Control Division before being appointed in 2016 as the Managing Director of BGFIBank Europe, the European subsidiary of the BGFIBank Group, specializing in international trade financing. He holds a master’s degree in Banking and Finance from Paris Dauphine University and a graduate degree from Paris Descartes University.

"We have a full banking licence (corporate, financial institution and individuals)—which other banks do not have—though which we handle private banking and wealth management for individuals in Paris who have accounts here as well."

TBY talks to Francesco De Musso, General Director of BGFIBank, about setting up in the DRC, the unbanked population, and mobile connectivity.

There are not many banks in the DRC. What encouraged BGFIBank to establish a presence here?

BGFIBank DRC has been present in the DRC for 15 years now, and the goal of the BGFIBank Group in 2001 was to expand internationally. We are the leading banking group in Central Africa, and it was important for us to be present in the largest country in Central Africa. That is why BGFIBank launched operations in the DRC. The main strengths of the DRC for BGFIBank are its population and its wealth.

Given that over 75% of the Congolese population remains unbanked, what initiatives is BGFIBank undertaking to overcome this?

The BGFIBank Group has the DNA of a corporate bank, and no matter where we go, we retain that core. However, depending on the markets we are in, we also develop retail banking activities. Our strategy is to rely on digital banking, and we place great emphasis on digitalization and financial inclusion. To meet the challenge of the large unbanked population, in 2023 BGFIBank launched a digital bank called RakkaCash. Our goal is not to open branches all over the country, like some of our competitors, but to allow the public to be banked through a mobile app. Our digital bank accounts includes all the functionalities of a regular bank account. The app does not have any fees, and customers can access payment methods or bank cards. Customers can open savings accounts, for example, or apply for a prepaid Visa card linked to the app. They can also transfer money and pay their telecoms bills. We have added the ability to make transfers between Rakkacash and other telecom operators as well as adding money to their digital wallets via a network of banking agencies, which are BGFIBank’s partners. More than an app, RakkaCash is a neo-bank. Our business model is to encourage people to use our app as a bank account. They can deposit or withdraw money, make transfers, pay their bills, or even make merchant payments with QR codes. Our goal is to popularize this product and have the largest number of active customers. The DRC officially has about 100 million people, though only 50% of the territory is covered in terms of mobile connectivity. The number of mobile money users today is 10 million, and these are mostly customers of telecoms operators like Orange Money, M-Pesa, Airtel Money, or Afrimoney. The numbers are growing rapidly, though there are still 40 million potential consumers, not to mention the other 50 million who will acquire mobile access. We cannot ignore these numbers; however, we must come with a business model that does banking in an innovative way to meet their needs, which is what BGFIBank is doing.

BGFIBank’s digital strategy requires mobile connectivity. How are you working with mobile network operators (MNO)?

We had to form partnerships to succeed, and we are the only one with three telecoms operators on our platform. Rather than financial inclusion, which is the target of telecoms operators, we focus on banking inclusion, which is a financial issue. Banking inclusion requires close cooperation between our expertise as a bank and the network of telecoms operators. With this, we are able to cover the entire country.

Given its expertise in corporate services, is BGFIBank also targeting large multinational companies and foreign investors in the DRC?

Yes, we are, though we also target SMEs. Our strength lies in corporate banking. Being a pan-African banking group, we are able to work with multinational groups. Our organization is focused on business-to-business. We essentially have four main business lines: corporate and institutional banking, retail banking, digital banking, and private banking. Given the challenges in the DRC, we plan to focus more and more on retail and digital banking here. BGFIBank is one of only two banks in the DRC that have a branch in Paris, which allows us to work with international clients directly through our bank. We have a full banking licence (corporate, financial institution and individuals)—which other banks do not have—though which we handle private banking and wealth management for individuals in Paris who have accounts here as well.

In addition to financial inclusion, another key word in the financial sector is interoperability. What does the DRC need to make banks work together?

There are different types of interoperability: interoperability between banks, and interoperability with mobile money. There is currently adequate interoperability between banks because the country uses both the Congolese franc and the US dollar. Even though the Congolese Central Bank ensures clearing for the Congolese franc, there is no clearinghouse for dollars. Interoperability could be improved because all transactions between banks in dollars are done through commercial banks, and banks sometimes share the same correspondent banking relationships in order to conduct dollar transactions. On the digital side, however, interoperability is currently nonexistent. Today, there is MultiPay, which is a private switch, though it only connects four banks for cards operations, and BGFIBank is in the process of joining it. There’s no interoperability in terms of mobile money between banks, though the central bank is developing its own digital switch. There is interoperability between MNOs via aggregators, though there is no interoperability between all banks and all telecom operators, for example. This is the area in which we need the most progress to develop true banking inclusion and financial inclusion.

What are BGFIBank’s key strengths in the market as one of the few banks in the DRC?

One of our strengths is our international network. Most international companies in the DRC approach us because we have a presence in several countries and especially because we have an international hub in Paris that links the rest of the world to Africa. Trade finance is our expertise, and our correspondent bank confirms letters of credit for the rest of the world. BGFIBank also handles corporate financing and private banking. Our biggest strength, however, is the size of our group. We have a total balance sheet of just over USD8 billion and about USD700 million in equity. This financial strength is the reason why companies come to BGFIBank. In addition, we offer timely service. Some banks can take six to eight months between the time a client requests for financing and when the funds are deposited; in comparison, we do it in two to four weeks.

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