William Kahn has been called the “<a href="https://blog.workday.com/en-us/2018/how-william-kahn-revolutionized-employee-engagement-work.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">father of employee engagement</a>” and was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.studocu.com/row/document/unity-university/introduction-to-management/first-mention-of-employee-engagement-comes-from-kahn/16294323" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">credited</a>&nbsp;with&nbsp;<a href="https://workforce.com/news/re-engaging-with-william-kahn-25-years-after-he-coined-term-employee-engagement" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">coining the term</a>&nbsp;in a 1990&nbsp;<a href="https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/256287" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">paper</a>—a concept that helped spark a whole genre of management consulting and profitable industry of survey tools measuring how dedicated workers are to their jobs.



But the way his original idea has been adapted over the last 30 years by consultants and corporate America is “something I’m not proud of,” the Boston University&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bu.edu/questrom/profile/william-kahn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">professor</a>&nbsp;said when&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;called him recently to get his views on “quiet quitting,” the TikTok phenomenon about dialing back effort on the job and setting work-life boundaries that has spurred a deluge of media stories.&nbsp;



That’s because in Kahn’s view, many consultants and managers who picked up on his original research shifted “the focus on the person to the focus on the employee,” he says. Engagement “got redefined as how absorbed and attentive and energized someone can be on behalf of the organization”—rather than on employees’ personal connections with their work.



As the “quiet quitting” debate has grown—is this simply&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6966445729728839680?updateEntityUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_feedUpdate%3A%28V2%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A6966445729728839680%29" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gen Z rejecting hustle culture</a>? Nothing but a new phrase for coasting? A “<a href="https://annehelen.substack.com/p/a-quick-note-on-quiet-quitting" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">kernel of collective action</a>”?—it’s focused more attention on the ubiquitous concept of employee engagement, which corporate America uses to measure how connected workers are with their work. (It’s on the decline, by the way, with just 32% of U.S. employees saying they’re engaged at work,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gallup.com/394373/indicator-employee-engagement.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according to Gallup</a>.)



How has all the focus on an “engaged” workforce heightened expectations of what makes a “good” employee? Is the idea that many people now see setting boundaries as “quitting” a byproduct of corporations’ emphasis on “engagement”? As one physician advocacy group founder&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6967928052752273408/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote on LinkedIn</a>, “why are people being punished when they ‘meet’ expectations?”&nbsp;



To try and understand how we got here,&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;called up Kahn to get his views on the latest viral phenomenon. Excerpts of the conversation have been lightly edited for space and clarity.&nbsp;



McGregor: Is it correct that you coined the term employee &#8220;engagement&#8221;?



Kahn: The term I phrased was actually&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/256287" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">personal&nbsp;engagement</a>, which is what does it mean for a person—a human being—to bring more or less of themselves into their role at work. It was snatched up and then transformed into&nbsp;employee&nbsp;engagement. And the reason I&#8217;m fascinated by that is because it shifted the focus on the&nbsp;person&nbsp;to the focus on the&nbsp;employee. It got redefined as how absorbed and attentive and energized someone can be on behalf of the organization. That&#8217;s a different question than what does it mean for them to be absorbed because the work and the role taps into something authentic about them as people.&nbsp;



McGregor: What did the initial piece of research find in 1990 that everyone latched onto?



Kahn: [When people are engaged, they] experience themselves as the person they most want to be. They say what they think and feel. There&#8217;s a real human being there as opposed to a bureaucratic functionary. I identified three conditions for why they&#8217;re able to do that. [There is] the idea of psychological safety, which is it&#8217;s safe for them to say what they think and feel and argue the points they want to argue. There’s also the idea the work actually has some meaning for them and that they&#8217;re psychologically available—that is, they&#8217;re not distracted or preoccupied by other things in the workplace or in their lives.&nbsp;



What people latched on to is a slightly different question, which is a much more superficial idea of … how do we get people really engaged in doing their work as much as possible? They didn&#8217;t really look at the real findings. They didn&#8217;t really look at the psychological pieces. They just latched on, frankly, to the phrase.



McGregor: What are they missing?



Kahn: We think of people as human resources, human assets, human capital. And we forget the word “human.” The thought experiment I always do with people, with organizations and leaders, is to imagine you took the word “human” really seriously.&nbsp;



Engagement is no longer radical, but at the time [of the original paper] it was. Most theories of motivation were extrinsic. You pay people enough, you show them the career ladder, you give them boosts in their career, you give them job titles, they&#8217;ll work hard. I&#8217;m a psychologist. It’s much more psychological.&nbsp;



I think the reason we&#8217;ve heard this term ad nauseum is because, frankly, it became a big business. There are consulting firms out there who created engagement surveys and they then built a huge business of getting companies to adopt it as a metric.&nbsp;



McGregor: It feels like “engagement” has come to mean less how personally connected you are to your work, and more how much extra work you are willing to do. How do you think that happened?



Kahn: Essentially what you&#8217;re talking about is, do we as employees have discretionary energies and ideas that we&#8217;re withholding? I think you&#8217;re right. Organizations want to know how can we intentionally get more from our investment. You can&#8217;t help but think about sort of exploitation and organizations just wanting to get more out of people without necessarily having to pay more. That&#8217;s certainly one possible take. It&#8217;s a little bit cynical. For some organizations, it&#8217;s more true than others.&nbsp;



I’d say 80% of organizations use the metric [of engagement] thoughtlessly. They use it as performative metrics for managers and leaders, but they don&#8217;t really have any thoughtful interventions around it.&nbsp;



McGregor: What do you think about this term “quiet quitting”?



Kahn: This whole Great Resignation stuff—people refusing to go to the office anymore, working from home, moving to Denver—I see this as sort of a seismic power shift. When you talk about this new TikTok phrase, I think of it as a much more active version of the more passive aggressive “disengagement.” When we disengaged, we didn&#8217;t tell anybody about it, right? But if we&#8217;re “quiet quitting,” it isn’t so quiet if we&#8217;re posting it on TikTok. I see it not unlike a different version of workers taking back their own sense of autonomy and control over their work lives.



McGregor: So is “quiet quitting” really any different from classic disengagement?



Kahn: I would say it is&nbsp;a more extreme, in-your-face, public form of disengagement and coasting. It&#8217;s now about making a statement and not just sort of flying under the radar where I hope no one notices. The fact that people are actually posting on it and cheering one another on—for me, it&#8217;s the public, collective nature of it that makes it different.&nbsp;https://embedly.forbes.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F1TMvKFV-fiQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D1TMvKFV-fiQ&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F1TMvKFV-fiQ%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=3ce26dc7e3454db5820ba084d28b4935&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube



McGregor: Do you think it&#8217;s a good measure for companies to be using?



Kahn: It&#8217;s fine for organizations to use [engagement] as a blunt instrument. There&#8217;s nothing wrong with that. But most organizations stop there instead of actually saying, oh, these parts of our workforce seem to be disengaged. Let&#8217;s go discover and explore what that&#8217;s about and how we, as an organization, are contributing to that lack of engagement. If they&#8217;re only using it because they&#8217;re supposed to, or they&#8217;re using it to reward or punish leaders or managers without actually training them and equipping them to do something much more sophisticated about that lack of engagement, then it&#8217;s inauthentic—and employees know it.&nbsp;



McGregor: So if managers feel like they’re facing “quiet quitting”—or disengagement—what should they be paying attention to?



Kahn: I&#8217;m a psychologist so I actually believe in the power of conversation and vulnerability. I would probably not create another measure. I would create really thoughtful listening circles, where managers are encouraged to meet with groups of employees and talk openly about the pull to quietly quit. If you&#8217;re feeling that pull, what would help you reverse it? When you create top down measures, which are done topeople, they don&#8217;t trust it.



By Jena McGregor, Forbes Staff

Businessman working on his laptop in modern office

What The Professor Who Coined ‘Engagement’ On The Job Thinks About The ‘Quiet Quitting’ Trend

Emma Inamutila Theofelus is Namibia’s youngest minister hoping to turn around the fortunes of Africa’s youth.



EMMA INAMUTILA THEOFELUS IS NOT YOUR average 24-year-old. She is the Deputy Minister of Information and Communication Technology in Namibia, and at the top, represents her country’s majority demographic – the youth.



First appointed by President Hage G. Geingob as a Member of Parliament (MP), and then also as Deputy Minister in March last year, her immediate task was public communication on the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.



“I have learned that in a time of crisis, people panic and are susceptible to unverified information. I have also observed that citizens need to hear the same messaging in order to start believing it and trusting the source,” says the young politician, who was born and raised in Katutura, a township in Namibia’s capital Windhoek. 



There is the obvious issue of the glaring age gap between her and the parliamentarians she works with, but she says she does not let that intimidate her.



“We all started somewhere. I am not new to leadership and can leverage the skills I have learned in my activism to make a success of this role. Quite frankly, I believe I am well on my way,” says Theofelus, also a social justice lawyer.



In her dual role as MP and deputy minister, she plans to continue influencing decisions and laws made in the interest of young people.



“In my specific role, I have set out some key goals being that of communicating the programs of government effectively and so far we have done well in setting up a Government Information Centre. Secondly, I want to optimize the use of our Multi-Purpose Community Centres which act as ICT hubs for communities who have limited access to ICT. Thirdly, I want to help bridge the digital divide in the country through the prioritization of setting up ICT infrastructure,” she says.



Previously, Theofelus has worked as the Legal Officer at the Ministry of Justice, Vice Chairperson of the Global Entrepreneurs Network Namibia Board, the Commissioner of UNESCO Namibia and Junior Mayor of the City of Windheok.



<div class="wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile"><figure class="wp-block-media-text__media"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="683" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hon.-Emma-Thefelus-3-683x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-49652 size-full" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hon.-Emma-Thefelus-3-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hon.-Emma-Thefelus-3-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hon.-Emma-Thefelus-3-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hon.-Emma-Thefelus-3-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hon.-Emma-Thefelus-3-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hon.-Emma-Thefelus-3-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hon.-Emma-Thefelus-3-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hon.-Emma-Thefelus-3-scaled.jpg 1707w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px" /></figure><div class="wp-block-media-text__content">
<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">We all started somewhere. I am not new to leadership and can leverage the skills I have learned in my activism to make a success of this role. Quite frankly, I believe I am well on my way.</blockquote>
</div></div>



“She is seen as a beacon of hope, so she has the youth vote and the youth support,” says Luis Munana, a FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 list-maker in 2019 from Namibia. “Everybody is waiting for the old guys to leave so that new change comes into the country because we are tired of the old system as it is not really serving the people.”



Theofelus adds diversity to Namibia’s government, following in the footsteps of the first woman to serve as the Prime Minister of Namibia, Saara Kuugongelwa.



The fight to advance women’s empowerment and youth development on the continent has been a top priority for many countries, which has seen most governments appoint female leaders. In neighboring Botswana, trade economist and consultant Bogolo Kenewendo was only 29 when she was appointed Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry. In 2018, Zimbabwe appointed Kirsty Coventry, former Olympics swimmer, and world record holder, as the minister of Youth, Sport, Arts, and Recreation. Vera Daves De Sousa became Angola’s finance minister in 2019 at the age of 35.



Back in Namibia, to Africa’s youth, Theofelus says: “We are going to get this continent right.”

Hon. Emma Theofelus 2

‘We’re Going To Get This Continent Right’

Early last year, at the inception of the Covid-19 pandemic, Malawi was also battling for democracy. When Lazarus Chakwera became President in June, his win was hailed as a victory for democracy and justice. Born in Lilongwe to a subsistence farmer, the philosophy and theology graduate leads a nine-party coalition, the Tonse Alliance. He spoke to FORBES AFRICA in this exclusive interview about taking on the reins during the pandemic and his plans for the country’s future.



Q. What has changed in the few months you have been in office in the midst of a pandemic? 



A. My first week when I came into office was to change the direction of our country. Ours had been a country deeply entrenched in systematic corruption, greed, nepotism, executive arrogance, and economic atrocities committed by a huge cartel of state criminals. That’s why we are talking of changing direction for this sinking ship. That change of direction is embedded in my administration’s Super Hi5 Agenda, which is a blueprint for the plan to transform our country’s approach to governance. The tenets of this agenda are servant leadership, uniting Malawians, prospering together, ending corruption, and the rule of law. To execute this agenda, we have put together a formidable team of cabinet members committed to the renewal of Malawi, close to 40% of who are women.



Q. How have you managed to deal with the health and economic ramifications of the pandemic so soon into your new role?



A. The Covid-19 pandemic is such a colossal challenge that requires a complex cocktail of both domestic and international interventions. At a local level, we have focused on supporting our fragile health system in its provision of care for Covid-19 patients, campaigning vigorously with messages for preventive behaviors across our society, monitoring the inflow of travelers across our points of entry from Covid-hit countries, setting up a robust nationwide infrastructure for testing suspected cases, and curating innovative ways to support economic activity and income security for the most vulnerable of our people. At an international level, we have worked relentlessly to forge partnerships with other nations and international corporations to scale up and fast-track our access to and mobilization of funds, expertise, and medical supplies for our fight against Covid-19. In my capacity as President, I have also used my addresses at various global fora to call for a wide range of interventions for countries like mine, including debt cancellation and favorable terms for the movement of supplies and goods we need to sustain our fight and our economy.



Q. What initiatives do you plan to undertake in your first year in office?



A. We have no time to waste, which is why we hit the ground running. We have embarked on reforms in all the departments of government, a high priority initiative housed within the Presidency through the Office of the Vice President. Secondly, we have engaged to stimulate our economy towards both our job creation and economic productivity agendas, including the passing of a budget that delivers on our key economic promises. Thirdly, we have implemented the Affordable Inputs Program that will revolutionize the agricultural sector and guarantee food security for our rural masses. Fourthly, we have strengthened both the judiciary and law-enforcement agencies with sufficient funding and autonomy to uphold the rule of law without political interference, which now makes Malawi a stable environment for foreign direct investments. Fifthly, I have rolled out an ambitious and necessary Climate Change Agenda, which includes the inauguration of a National Clean-Up Day.



Q. Africa is one of the youngest continents, how do you plan on involving more youth in government?



A. Malawi’s population now stands at 17.5 million, of which 75% are youth and 51% are women. This means that empowering youth and women is the key to unlocking the economic potential of Malawi as a whole. To achieve this, my administration is launching the National Youth Service which I promised before taking office. In the short term though, we are training youth in business, vocational, livelihood, and technical skills. We are providing startup tools and equipment and linking the youth to financial lending institutions to commodify their innovations.



We have also embarked on a nationwide project to rehabilitate existing youth centers, build new sports centers, including the National Netball Complex and a Sports Academy. Principally, my administration intends to ensure that services rendered to young people are designed with input from young people, which is why within the first two months of my administration, I held a Youth Summit to get the best ideas from young people for implementation at the highest level.



Q. What are your plans in turning Malawi into an economic hub like South Africa or Nigeria?



A. The success of Malawi’s economy, going forward, will be anchored on a solid institutional foundation, a thriving private sector, and an environment that is conducive to foreign investment, youth and women empowerment, and zero tolerance to corruption. We will continuously carry out public sector reforms in order to achieve these goals.



Q. You have put the fight against corruption at the top of the agenda. How are you dealing with it?



A. In the first place, my administration is equipping and resourcing the arms and institutions leading the fight against corruption to ensure their autonomy, including the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the judiciary, the police service, and others. You will see that reflected in the recent funding allocations in the national budget that we presented and approved by the National Assembly. To complement these institutional efforts, I have made it my business to position my administration to lead by example in the handling of public resources, demanding that all members of my cabinet declare their assets.



Q. How will you ensure that individuals who plundered government resources are prosecuted?



A. By promoting the independence of bodies constitutionally mandated to prosecute suspects of corruption and holding those at the helm of those bodies to public scrutiny and account.



Q. There are so many expectations by Malawians that your presidency will solve almost all challenges. This could be a tall order. How do you plan not to lose the trust of the citizens?



A. Public trust is lost through lack of integrity, lack of service, lack of empathy, and lack of accountability. I plan to stay in front of these landmines by avoiding and removing anything that has the potential to foster such.



Q. What initiatives or changes will you bring to the health system of Malawi and when do you expect them to be implemented?



A. My administration’s vision for the health sector is to give all Malawians access to quality, equitable, and affordable healthcare through the Universal Health Coverage. The following key interventions will be of focus in our approach: Scaling up the provision of sexual and reproductive health services, we have a goal to eliminate AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. My administration is implementing a National Strategic Plan for the HIV response, which aims at 95-95-95 coverage targets for diagnosis, treatment, and viral suppression by 2025. We are eradicating all forms of malnutrition and as a step towards that, 76 nutritionists across the country have been trained and employed to lead the efforts. Another one of my administration’s most daring goals is the eradication of Malaria, and we will soon be launching the ‘Zero Malaria Campaign’’ to support community awareness. We are strengthening Community Health Infrastructure by constructing more health posts as we work towards our long- term goal to put health services within walking distance of every Malawian.



Q. What final message would you have for Malawians and Africans across the world?



A. We can achieve more together than apart, but to work together, we must have the courage to see the things that unite us, not the things that divide us.

MALAWI-VOTE

‘Empowering Women And Youth Key To Unlocking Malawi’s Economic Potential’

As chair of the global steering committee of the Radisson Hotel Group, which includes over a thousand hotels worldwide, Federico J. González must have his hands full – especially at this time when the hospitality industry is in the doldrums globally. The marketer and author, who’s the President and CEO of Radisson Hospitality AB, tells us more about how hotels will change permanently.



What is your forecast for the hotel economy and your group as a whole?



I believe that hotel operations will change permanently. We have all had to adapt and act together as a global community for the health and safety of our neighbors, families and friends. Operations have and will continue to change as we continue to apply the Radisson Hotels Safety Protocol and recommendations of the World Health Organization and local health authorities. These will change hotel operations such as check-in, F&amp;B outlets, gyms, spas and more with regard to social distancing, maximum capacity for common spaces and&nbsp; increased disinfection and cleaning. There will be a heightened awareness around safety&#8230; That will be the most important deciding factor for travelers which needs to be at front of mind operationally. The Radisson Hotel Group is one of the largest hotel groups in the world, so for us, it’s imperative to ensure a common high standard of hygiene, safety and sanitation that is standardized and implemented around the world and validated by a third-party like SGS (global inspection, verification, testing and certification company).&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



What about the tourism industry in general and the new thinking that will revive it?



There are so many countries, companies and airlines that rely on travel, tourism and the hospitality industry. Many airlines and hotels are encouraging guests to start traveling again to reignite the travel industry and its future recovery. There is a strong appetite for travel and it’s great to see hotels reopen and people traveling again.



Looking ahead, health and safety will continue to be the most important deciding factor when booking a holiday. We are seeing people take smaller trips where they can get in their car, a train or a plane for a short journey. They want to ensure they will feel safe before getting on a long-haul flight. Given the economic climate post Covid-19, many people may not be able to travel as much, which means they will either look to take smaller mini-breaks, invest in one holiday or spend the time discovering their own country.



The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology within businesses, small or large, and we all had to learn how to work from home full-time from one day to the other, so I believe the way people meet will also change. There will always be a need for physical meetings and interactions, but business meetings might move to a more hybrid set-up, maybe with smaller teams getting together in one location and connecting with the others via videoconference.



What are the opportunities/trends coming out of this crisis?



Our whole world has been greatly impacted and the expansive global scale of Covid-19 is unprecedented. We have seen positive news coming from Asia and Europe with the reopening of some of our hotels and we will see further hotels start to open&nbsp; up as restrictions are lifted.



I feel there is a real opportunity for brands to stand by and clearly communicate their brand values and positioning to consumers. Consumers need to believe in your brand, in your health and safety commitment and that you will deliver on your promises.



What is your strategy for &#8216;doomsday&#8217; should the worst happen?



Prior to Covid-19, we had a strong crisis management process and flexible cost model in place. Of course, no one could have predicted the global scale of this pandemic and the daily changes to our business, the world and life. With our global scale of over 1,100 hotels in operation and another 300 in the pipeline across the world, we had a global macro viewpoint of the pandemic and the different responses. We also have the full support of our shareholders for any financial needs until the expected end of the crisis.



What lessons do you think are there in it for all of us?



Covid-19 has brought out the best in many people around the world. It has been uplifting to see communities come together in support of key workers and medical professionals, rallying around each other. We have seen this especially in the hospitality industry which has been one of the most affected.



My hope is that we don’t forget this remarkable resilience, commitment, integrity and, most importantly, kindness and generosity towards the local communities where we operate and live in.



– Interviewed by Busi Lethole

Federico J. González

What The Hoteliers Are Thinking: ‘Business Meetings Might Move To A More Hybrid Set-Up’

Jaydeep Gupta, the Regional Head of Retail Banking, Africa and Middle East, Standard Chartered, on why banks need to adapt and respond to an ever-changing operating environment in Africa.

Africa’s growth prospects
There is no doubt there is significant opportunity in Africa not just in banking but across many industries. While the banking industry has faced a slight slowdown in other global markets, in Africa, this hasn’t been the case. According to a recent report by McKinsey, Africa’s banking sector is projected to grow significantly over the next five years. In fact, it’s nearly twice as profitable as the global average. Looking at retail banking, in 2017, retail bank revenue in Africa was at $35 billion and, according to McKinsey, it’s expected to increase by 8.5 % per year, reaching $53 billion by 2022.
By bringing both digitization and technological innovations into the economies, we are seeing more companies rival new segments with the progressive application of risk analytics. There is also an increased use of non-bank data for customer behavior analytics and proactiveness in looking at credit extensions over a period of time.
Digital transformation  
We have been exploring opportunities in the market to drive digital banking and, in March, we launched our first digital retail bank in Côte d&#8217;Ivoire. This marked the bank’s first digital bank in Africa and the first-of-its-kind launched.
It was the perfect opportunity to launch a fully end-to-end digital bank, with only one physical branch to test our model for future roll-out. The platform allows customers to execute all banking activities from a mobile device, including 70 banking services through the app. In addition, for the first time, the client onboarding journey has been digitised and in under 15 minutes, a client can open a new account through the app. What has also been introduced is the ability for clients to track and trace a request submitted, which is a first for Standard Chartered… We are now preparing to launch digital banks in our other markets across Africa.
Challenges in developing markets
We have faced a number of different challenges in Africa, some of the most common being the heavy reliance on cash and low-banking penetration. The most important challenge in my opinion is to stay ahead of the curve and evolve along with market demands. In today’s digital world, it’s critical that we collaborate with different partners and form alliances in order to provide clients with a convenient and superior customer experience, in line with a rapidly-evolving market.
Investing in technology
We always protect and grow our market share by utilizing our client services and capabilities which keeps us ahead of the competition. We are also putting a heavy focus on digitization, which is one of the key items on the bank’s transformation agenda. We are making strategic investments in technology to stay ahead of the curve and are constantly enhancing our products and services to make banking simpler, more convenient and secure.
A great example of this is the introduction of enhanced digital banking services, including our mobile app, SC Mobile, and Retail Workbench ‘Bank on an iPad’ platform.
<a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/entrepreneurs/2018/04/26/banking-on-technology-new-mobile-bank-set-to-launch/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Banking On Technology: New Mobile Bank Set To Launch</a>
Promoting inclusiveness
Look at multiple ways of including and empowering women in the banking industry, one of which is providing innovative and tailored products and services designed to suit the needs of women in Africa. This is especially evident in, and made possible by, the digital journey. With enhanced digital and analytic capabilities, we are able to develop solutions which are specifically designed for women, as well as students and entrepreneurs. We are also exploring ways of empowering women and providing them with the necessary tools to succeed in banking and hold leadership roles in the industry. A great example of this is our Women in Technology Incubator originally established in the United States and rolled out in Africa in 2017 with Kenya taking the lead.
<div id="attachment_37739" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37739" class="size-medium wp-image-37739" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JGchosen1-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JGchosen1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JGchosen1-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JGchosen1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JGchosen1-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/JGchosen1.jpg 1241w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Jaydeep Gupta. Photo provided.</div>
Mobile wallets
The digital banking movement in Africa started with the mobile wallet. There are over 100 million active mobile money users in Africa. The mobile wallet has improved the lives of Africans by facilitating participation and accessibility.
We are starting to witness the next generation of products being made available to customers in Africa. A great example of this is the recent widespread use of e-wallets which are beginning to pave the way to less reliance on cash in Africa. Along with less reliance, other benefits like affordability, increased security and greater convenience act as key drivers for customers.
Digital banking in Africa is especially unique because it has the potential to remedy some of the continent’s greatest economic challenges while simultaneously presenting some of the largest opportunities for digital and online banking.
More regulation 
Banking in Africa, and the world, has evolved significantly over the last 10 years. Customers are now demanding more convenient, quick, and easy services from banks. Providing online and mobile platforms is no longer a benefit, but a requirement. We have also seen regulators in Africa more heavily, and frequently, enforce regulation across the continent. This, in turn, has forced banks to adapt and respond to an ever-changing operating environment. Looking at online and mobile banking solutions specifically, banks have not necessarily replaced them, but they are definitely exploring options for updating them in line with these changes and ensuring the security of their customers. For many, this has forced them to think outside of the box.
Robotics and AI over people?
There is no doubt that robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will change the people interface, but it definitely does not mean that it will replace it. If anything, leveraging advancements in technology will only complement customer services and help us be more efficient and targeted. For example, banks today are utilizing AI to analyze financial data in order to provide customers with tailor-made and fully-customizable banking solutions, designed specifically to suit customers’ individual needs.
Advanced analytics 
It’s critical that these capabilities are invested in and continue to be built on. Without proper analytics, companies will struggle to understand consumer behavior. To provide customers with the best possible service, you must understand where they are coming from. Therefore, it is very important that solid collection strategies and procedures are put in place.
<h2>Africa: hotbed of innovation</h2>
<ul>
<li>According to a recent report by McKinsey, over 40% of African banking users prefer to use digital channels for their financial needs. This is no surprise and is indicative of the digital shift we are witnessing across sub-Saharan Africa.</li>
<li>The African banking sector has been described as a ‘hotbed’ of innovation. As Africa begins to enter an exciting era of digitization, innovation will play a key role in unlocking the future potential of banking.</li>
</ul>

Mobile/Contactless Payment

Why Digital Banking Is Unique In Africa

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and head of the African Union speaks to CNBC Africa’s Chris Bishop on continental trade, business and China’s influence. Excerpts of the interview.

Q. Philosophers and poets have been talking about a united Africa for decades. It seems on the business front, it is on the cards. We are talking about an African Continental Free Trade Area. As Chairperson of the African Union, how are you going to make this happen? 
A. Africa coming together and being united is a very important task and responsibility for all of us. It’s never going to be a task of the Chairperson of the African Union alone. What the Chairperson does is to govern the understanding and support and everyone together so we do what needs to be done for our continent to be unified. We have already started with the Continental Free Trade Area; before that, we have been talking about regional integration. Regions with a lot commonalities can come together to do business, to invest in each other or deal with the rest of the world as one entity.
Q. How difficult is this going to be? 
A. It is going to be difficult bringing change even when it is very necessary… As Chairperson of the African Union or even as a president of my country, I know it is the task of other leaders to not only talk about nice things that should happen, but also do the hard work to lead all of us to the results of the effort we have to put in. So we have to keep raising our voices first of all, reminding people, assuming that they have forgotten, because some of them do not know what they are supposed to do. So you have to keep raising your voice, keep reminding people and we do it collectively. It is always going to be useful if we do it together and understand that together is when we are going to succeed.
Q. A lot of countries have not yet signed up to the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement. What can you do about this? 
A. The best way is to start from somewhere and demonstrate the good that can come out of such a thing as a free trade area and having an agreement over that and what needs to happen. Once you demonstrate the benefits, I think people will quickly move towards doing things that benefit them. And in actual fact, we also need to look at what happens elsewhere in the world. We know the stories of different parts of the world where people have come from and the paths they have taken and where they are today. And from Africa, we look at what has happened in Asia, the long history of Europe, Latin America, United States, Canada and so on. So we need to relate to where they are with a number of things that have happened or they have done to be there… But we can’t be there by just admiring what other people have done and not doing exactly what you need to do for yourself and get moving with the situation and improving it&#8230;
Q: What do you think a leader should be doing to keep talented young people on the continent? 
A: It is governance; we need to govern our people properly. But governance alone does not provide anything; what you do within those structures, and that comes to the investments we make that are responsive to people’s needs, aspirations and desires. It’s around the creation of a business environment, whether small or big businesses can make money, can do whatever they can and do that freely, because people know how to do some of these things, but until there is a conducive environment for them to play that part, that won’t happen. So leaders must make sure that this is the case and allow people to participate in all that. Once there is participation, there is benefiting, there is the feeling that what they have is what they wanted; at least they have hope, they are sure that things are moving in the right direction even if they do not have what they wanted now, they can have it tomorrow.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/life/2016/04/01/tribute-remarkable-rwandan-women/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: ‘A Tribute To Remarkable Rwandan Women’</a>
Q: To your role as Chairperson of the African Union, I mean if you can argue that this is Africa’s time, but still there is that lingering fear and concern sometimes about stability, even in your own region in East Africa. How are you planning to tackle this in your job? 
A. It is just to keep bringing out these discrepancies. The complaints people have are real. You need to listen to them and you need to get to the bottom of why there are these contradictions, of course the major problem being we have many of us who say the right things but the next day, we are doing the complete opposite. So until we exercise some conscientious discipline to an extent really, if we understand that this is what we need to do and it’s good for everybody, it’s good for you, it’s good for me and in fact if there is something that is good for both of us, we shouldn’t tamper with that, we need to only take it forward and make sure we benefit more but together. This is something we have seen over many years because even when we are talking about regional integration, which has made good progress over the years, we still have people who will talk about integration and will talk about all the good things and how everybody should do this and that and then you find the same people are the ones undermining integration. It has happened. We see it every day. So we need to keep shouting out to these people and say ‘please, you know this is affecting me and maybe at the end, it will affect you’.
Q: How do you think Africa is doing right now in persuading the businessmen of the world to put their money into this continent? 
A: Well, let me start with my own country Rwanda. On the continent of Africa alone, Rwanda is the second best place when it comes to the ease-of-doing-business index. I am saying every country on our continent is trying to fix different problems that create obstacles for business in Africa. Every country is making an effort, Rwanda is one of them. The whole of East Africa is involved in that. So on people’s minds, they know how important it is for countries to create a good environment for investors to invest in, for people doing business to do business or for the business people of one country to do business in another country or with the citizens of another country. This is now a very common discussion. People are always searching for better ways to allow that to happen, so I think things are on the upward trend, things are in the right direction but it’s never enough and I think Africa is still lagging behind many other parts of the world. Even if we look at intra-Africa trade, it is still very low, when it comes to other regions, it’s much higher, so we need to improve, we need to do better and we need to move faster.
Q: A lot of countries have run into a lot of soured private-public investments. How do you approach it as a leader when trying to negotiate private-public partnerships? 
A. You see, the starting point is, let’s say both sides, are we prepared? Do we know what we want? Do we know how to get it while we allow the partner to also get what they want? You see, there are two parties here. Why things have gone wrong is some people have gone into partnerships and this is mostly with governments; a lot of things happen that prove that either government did not know what they wanted or they knew but the people who were involved on behalf of the government ended up trying to benefit themselves instead of looking at the country’s interest, and the other partner who is the private partner. This has always been the case but if governments are prepared and governments have expertise, if they do not have it in-house, they can hire expertise to act on their behalf. There is so much out there that once you ask people to stand in for you as expertise, they will do that. So it is not the formula of private-partnership that is problematic, it is those who are involved in the transactions that become problematic.
Q: So you are talking about corruption here? 
A. Absolutely! Corruption comes in, there is no question about it. Corruption is part of it or just bad governance of the whole process.
<div id="attachment_37491" style="width: 750px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37491" class="wp-image-37491 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-825575448-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="740" height="494" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-825575448-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-825575448-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-825575448-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-825575448-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/GettyImages-825575448.jpg 1654w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px" />Incumbent Rwandan President Paul Kagame greets the crowd after addressing supporters at the closing rally of the presidential campaign in Kigali, on August 2, 2017. </div>
Q: I know it is something you have tried to fight for a decade. How close do you think you are to actually getting it out of the system here? 
A. You will never kill corruption completely, but you can reduce it to the bare minimum and what has happened is to create an environment of accountability and transparency, where things will be done and without fear or favor, justice will be exercised. It does not matter whether it is a big person or an ordinary person. Once they are caught up in this, the law should apply.
Q: From all the corners of the continent, a lot of people are still saying China smacks of neo-colonialism – the influence they are exerting in Africa right now. What do you say? 
A. Well, tell me about neo-colonialism or the old one? The new or the old I don’t know, but they are all bad things, but again it comes to the whole point… There are Chinese investments in Africa; you do not make investments for nothing, and it is not charity, right? Africa needs investments and again, it goes back to the other point I raised – does Africa know what it wants in working with other people from other parts of the world? If China offers an opportunity, that’s the way I prefer to see it. What does Rwanda want from China or what can we ably get from China, where we will benefit and China will benefit because again it is not a charity relationship. So if we know that and have discussions about it, then we should have a fair deal. Do I want the Chinese to build a power plant for me, for Rwandans to have sufficient electricity? How much is China able to lend to us or how much actually do we owe, or different groups that have been lending us money, so we make sure that we don’t end up owing too much or more than we can actually absorb from China and if you did it with any other country anywhere, it would be the same problem so we have to be conscious of that but if they are able to give us resources or money or lend us and say ‘we build for you power plants because that’s what we want’, and we say ‘okay, we are going to have this much invested in it and this is how we are going to repay the debt’ and so on and so forth… why should that be a problem? Because I don’t know of any place where China has walked into and started grabbing things, and if it happened, then it is not a problem of China, it is a problem of where it is happening I think. For the country to just surrender everything and be grabbed, then there is a problem.
Q. Where do you think you would have been if you hadn’t gone into politics and become a president? What would you want to do with your life? 
A: Well, when I was in my youth, I used to like to do things, to make things. Maybe I would have pursued certain careers and professions. You would have seen me as an engineer, or somebody doing an innovation or creating things.
Q: So you would have been quite happy as a carpenter or… 
A: Absolutely! A mechanic or…
Q: And if you were, what would you be saying to your president of Rwanda today? 
A: I would say try to do the best, to provide us with an environment that does not stand in the way of people’s ability to realize their potential or do whatever they want to do, meaning, get the government out of the way of people trying to thrive and do things they wish to do. And this goes back to the same story, it’s like what we are always trying to say – what is it that we can get out of the way of business, investments or people who have benefitted from education to base on the knowledge and skills they have to do what they want to do and improve their standards of living. This would be my request to my president. If that was the situation, I would say make sure government does not stand in the way of the freedoms of people to realize their potential and do what they wish to do.
For the full interview, visit cnbcafrica.com

Rwanda President Paul Kagame At Harvard

Paul Kagame: ‘Together Is When We Are Going To Succeed’

The South African women’s football coach, Desiree Ellis, on the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Cup, and why it is important to plan for a future after football. 

<ol>
<li>What are your biggest challenges coaching a national women’s soccer team? </li>
</ol>
I think it’s the same everywhere when you have to prepare for a match a week before the game.
<ol start="2">
<li>Would you say being a coach in South Africa is a lucrative career?</li>
</ol>
We have a semi-professional league, the Sasol League, many of the coaches have their own jobs so it is all about the passion and trying to make a difference.
<ol start="3">
<li>The biggest lesson you learned in your career? </li>
</ol>
Together, we can do anything. Football is a team sport but it is not just about the players, but the staff as well, each and every one has to play its part for it to be a success.
<ol start="4">
<li>As a woman, have you experienced discrimination on the field and how did you deal with it? </li>
</ol>
[There is a] lot of stereotyping that girls should not play football, but I had the support of both my parents and that’s all that mattered. I remember going to a match and guys walking by saying ‘let’s go watch these girls play and have a laugh’. After the game, they were our biggest supporters. We just tried to play the best we could and showed that we love the game and have the skills to play.
<ol start="5">
<li>What qualities do you believe make a good team? </li>
</ol>
There will always be special players in any team but teamwork is the most important for me, as the individualism of the special players will shine brighter through teamwork. The 2018 FIFA World Cup is a perfect example. The teams with a special player left the competition early…the likes of Belgium, England, Croatia and France who had special players but were more reliant on teamwork stood the test of time with France beating Croatia in the final.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/sometime-in-africa/2012/10/01/football-money-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Football is Money in Africa</a>
<ol start="6">
<li>What is the one thing soccer players take for granted? </li>
</ol>
Not taking care of tomorrow as there has to be a future after football because not everyone is going to play professional football. When I was playing, especially in the national team, 90% of the players were unemployed but now 90%, if not more, have degrees or are currently studying.
<ol start="7">
<li>What is more important to you, time or money? </li>
</ol>
Definitely time. It might take a lot of time and effort to get where you want to be, but it will be time spent wisely.
<ol start="8">
<li>How do you stay financially prudent? </li>
</ol>
I try to stay within my budget but sometimes it’s very difficult as I like to spoil my nieces and nephews but I also try to save money monthly.
<ol start="9">
<li>The moment you step on the field, you….?</li>
</ol>
Immediately focus on the task at hand, getting the most of our training session; reaching our objective for the session.

Football – 2018 COSAFA Womens Cup – South Africa – Team Announcement – SAFA House

A Future After Football

KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa is not just azure seas and white beaches. It is increasingly drawing business and the MICE sector to its sunny coast, says Sonto Mayise. 

The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province of South Africa offers a breath-taking vignette of visuals, ranging from the majestic mountains to the azure sea and white beaches. But it also boasts convention centers that bring travelers from the rest of Africa and beyond. Sonto Mayise, the Acting Chief of the Convention Bureau, says you can have the views, the world-class hotels and state-of-the-art conference centers but they mean nothing without the warmth of the people. She tells us how business tourism is growing in KZN and its coastal city Durban:
What are the main attractions in Durban at this moment?
It comes down to what you see when you land. The beauty of our people in the Zulu Kingdom takes it all. You come in and people smile at you, they are welcoming. It is an attraction of its own. It’s the first-hand experience you give a traveler that will make a lasting impression.
How are you attracting business to KZN? 
I see my mandate in terms of going after events and bringing conferences, meetings and exhibitions to destination Durban and KZN; over and above the mandate of bidding for events, of making sure that you give all the support required, you need to make sure you create relationships and that you maintain and nurture them as well.
What are the trends you have noticed in terms of tourism in general in KZN? 
There is a shift in terms of people knowing about Durban as a [leisure] destination. The ICC in Durban is rated as the leading convention center in Africa. We say as a gateway, as Durban, we have what you need in terms of hosting big events. I’ve picked up that people always come as business tourists and a few months down the line or in a year, they come back as tourists. It is like killing two birds with one stone.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/10/01/all-roads-to-the-economic-powerhouse/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: All Roads To The Economic Powerhouse</a>
How does the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) industry here compare with Cape Town, Gauteng and the rest of Africa? 
Internationally, people think of Cape Town and Gauteng as ideal provinces to bring business to and often ask where Durban is. We work twice as hard in promoting Durban as a gateway. We are not only promoting Durban but the KZN province as a gateway. We are still in a space where we compete with Cape Town; in instances, it will be leading in conferences, but in terms of delegate numbers, Durban will always be the highest. More and more people are having big conferences in Durban. We can name the World Economic Forum we hosted in 2016, the AIDS conference which was the biggest in 2016 and the BRICS Business Council we just hosted.
What are the top business sectors Durban attracts? 
This is about creating relationships more than anything else. That is part of the mandate for bidding for events. This is confirmation that I am doing something right in the industry. They can see the best that we are doing in KZN and now we are taking the FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit to Durban [in 2019]. There is much that still needs to be done so we can change and also empower our black people and young women in the MICE industry.
How has the maritime industry developed in recent years? 
The moment you grow the maritime sector, the more you grow the business events sector. We have one of the biggest ports in Durban so when people want an event in the cargo space, they can’t go to Johannesburg or Cape Town. They need to go to Durban and they can only do that if we grow the sector as a maritime destination.

SontoMAyise_GL

Where Conferences Meet The Coast

Home to Sandton, Africa’s richest square mile, Gauteng is gearing up for more action as a world-class hub for business tourism. And Nonnie Kubeka is driving it.

Gauteng, one of South Africa’s nine provinces, is a sought-after address for global brands and some of the continent’s biggest businesses. As Head: Gauteng Conventions &amp; Events Bureau, Nonnie Kubeka, who has 21 years of experience in marketing across several sectors, has the tough task of developing business tourism in the province through lifestyle events and the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Exhibitions) sector, which makes a sizeable contribution to Gauteng’s economy.
Describe the landscape of Gauteng and its offerings? 
We don’t have the sea or the mountains or iconic leisure [sites] where people come for holiday. We are a business destination, therefore business-related events are 70% of Gauteng’s push. Social beneficiation, social cohesion and job creation are a bigger part of the events. 
We have more than 400 venues that can accommodate the MICE space in Gauteng. In that, we have top heritage sites people are interested in. We have the Constitution Hill and Apartheid Museum, but when we bring business tourism to the destination, we don’t just bring business tourism according to market segments, but in terms of sectors. We are big on research that attracts people to come do business here.
How does Gauteng differ from the rest of Africa? 
We are the economic powerhouse and that is why when we do business tourism, it is for the benefit of the economy. For us to maintain our status in business tourism, we don’t grow the market, we draw the sectors so that everybody from all over the world can come and contribute to our economy.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/09/10/why-we-need-hard-cash-into-the-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Why We Need ‘Hard Cash In The Economy’</a>
As the richest square mile in Africa, what does Sandton attract? 
We have got the Sandton Convention Centre that in the whole of Gauteng can accommodate more than 30,000 people at a time and we utilize that particular center to attract more business into Sandton and the nice thing about it is that it’s a precinct. People want to walk from the center itself to the hotels and the bed nights we get out of Sandton are more than 15,000 at a time, so it becomes much easier to host a big conference. The combination of shopping, convention centers, hotels and dining is a unique offering.
Are there any trends you have picked up in the last year? 
We have had disruptors in the digital space where people join conferences through web-streaming. They have not succeeded on a bigger scale. Conferences are about networking. Face-to-face gatherings are important. We are gathering people in business – that is where they share deals and ideas. Instead of going to golf courses for networking, they would rather go to a conference where they will gather knowledge and meet the relevant people they can leverage on. Business tourism will not be affected by the digital space.
What are the objectives of the Gauteng Conventions &amp; Events Bureau? 
Township revitalization, meaning giving business to the township. The inclusive economy includes small businesses and women-owned businesses. Business tourism is about inclusive economy and transformation of disadvantaged people. Women take leadership in organizing professional international conferences. Business tourism is not as big as leisure tourism in our country; it has just started so we are using it to revitalize what women can do within that particular space.
How does South Africa benefit from medical tourism? 
We are like India and the UK, and especially in South Africa, you get a lot of specialists. We package it in a way that friends and family can also come and visit through the process. Most people who come for medical tourism stay on in the country or the province for three months or more. Sometimes, they take the whole bed-and-breakfast [options] with their families especially when [they are] next to the hospital. We have an example in Tembisa where a guesthouse [hosts] patients and their families. We have packages for them to go to the botanical gardens to de-stress for instance. This tourism also includes the doctor conferences.

LION4873

All Roads To The Economic Powerhouse

The Managing Director of the ABN Group, Roberta Naicker, wins the Top Businesswoman of the Year Award at the 2018 Standard Bank Top Women Awards.

For over 11 years, the ABN Group, home to the FORBES AFRICA and CNBC Africa brands, has diligently told the African growth story and shared the perspectives of the titans of industry.
For over a decade now, Durban-born Roberta Naicker has been an intrinsic part of the company’s journey, and as its Managing Director, is today a success story herself.
In August, which is regarded as Women’s Month in South Africa, Naicker won the Top Businesswoman of the Year Award at the 2018 Standard Bank Top Women Awards.
The function, at the Emperors Palace in Johannesburg, drew over 650 guests from corporate companies, government departments and the entrepreneurial sphere.
<div id="attachment_37297" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37297" class="size-medium wp-image-37297" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/strikeaposephotography-0243-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/strikeaposephotography-0243-200x300.jpg 200w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/strikeaposephotography-0243-300x450.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/strikeaposephotography-0243-600x900.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/strikeaposephotography-0243-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/strikeaposephotography-0243-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/strikeaposephotography-0243.jpg 1241w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Roberta Naicker. Photo provided.</div>
&nbsp;
The awards were to recognize outstanding leadership in individuals and organizations that have stepped up and shaped the role of women within the private and public sectors.
“It was not an easy task, but with a dedicated group of men and women, we’ve been able to position Africa as the continent of tomorrow,” said an elated Naicker about the ABN Group as she received her award in a room filled with the prominent and the powerful.
In March 2008, Naicker was hired as the head of finance of the group, and had to find her feet in the media industry.
She currently serves as a board member, is the Chair and Managing Director of ABN Productions, ABN Pictures and the ABN Training Institute, Chair of the ABN Education Trust, and Chair of ABN Nigeria and Kenya.
She speaks to FORBES WOMAN AFRICA about winning and why she believes gender parity will be achieved faster with the 4th Industrial Revolution.
How does it feel winning? 
I was genuinely surprised and grateful to be awarded Businesswoman of the Year. This award is as much an award to me, as it is an award to ABN for recognizing potential and helping it grow. My journey with ABN has been a cherished adventure which started in 2008. I have held the position as MD since 2011. This award is a special milestone for me personally and professionally. It is a testimony to the guidance of the Board, the support of the management and the hard work of every single member of the staff.
What do you attribute your success to? 
Success is not a one-person game, it is team work. It is all the people who stand behind me – the staff, the management, the executive team, the Board and the shareholders. My success and growth is attributable to being able to work with so many wonderful people and being able to bring the best out of them. Our Vice-Chairman, Rakesh Wahi’s trust and faith in my leadership, and steadfast support has been very crucial in defining my career.
What has changed in the media landscape in the last decade since you joined? 
A decade is a long time and a lot has changed. The media landscape has evolved so rapidly. We stand in the middle of the 4th Industrial Revolution, one in which technology impacts everything we do and is evolving at such a rapid pace. The media industry is one of the most impacted industries. The digital revolution has drastically changed how the world consumes media especially news media, and at this time it is important to be one step ahead!
You came in taking up a position in an industry new to you, what advice would you have given yourself at that time? 
My advice has always been [to] take one day at a time, and give your 100% for that day. It has worked so well for me because each day brings new highs, new challenges and new opportunities and it brings me great satisfaction to give each of these my 100% best.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2018/09/27/celebrating-five-years-with-the-founder-publisher-rakesh-wahi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Celebrating Five Years With The Founder &amp; Publisher: Rakesh Wahi</a>
What are you looking forward to? 
Over the past 11 years of operation in Africa, we are proud to have created employment opportunities, promoted the development of women within the organization and a niche for financial journalism on the continent. The group still aims to their spread our wings across the continent, a goal which keeps me up at night and brings me back to work in the morning with enthusiasm and energy.
How would you describe your leadership style? 
My leadership style has also grown with the company. I have been able to lead the organization through its journey across the African continent and watch us become Africa’s largest business news aggregator. I don’t believe leadership style can fit into one box but the term I guess which suits this journey the most is ‘transformative’.
Will there be a time when gender will not be a topic in the workplace? 
Women represent the largest disruptive force in business. We are currently the largest unserved market in business. Sheryl Sandberg has beautifully put the answer to this question – it lies in more women in more positions of power. Empowered women empower other women. While this is not something that will happen overnight, I believe we are on the right path, and I believe that this journey will arrive at its destination.
We are leapfrogging in tech and the 4th Industrial Revolution, but when do you think we will achieve gender parity? 
It is because of the 4th Industrial Revolution that I believe gender parity will be achieved faster. The internet has changed the way we consume news; every consumer is also a contributor. The internet has brought people from all over the world together. With a click of a button, we can connect to women across ages, cultures and countries. It can be an amazing tool for empowerment and it can be used to create momentum to women’s issues. Women always had a voice, now we have a platform where we can use it and be heard.
What are some of the views you have on the gender pay gap existing in Africa? With so many women in the media profession, how do you advise this must change? 
Based on statistics released in 2015, women collectively represent the second-largest economy in the world. Yet it is a widely-known fact that women are paid 25% to 40% less than men globally. Women are the single-largest productive economic force, and drive almost every economic indicator for businesses. This gap will close only if there are more women in power, empowering other women. As mentioned earlier, this is not an overnight phenomena, but a journey. One which has gathered more momentum, and one which will surely get us to a better world with more empowered women only if we keep at the journey.

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‘Gender Parity Will Come Sooner’

Busi Mabuza, the Chairperson of the Board of the Industrial Development Corporation, on the BRICS summit and why we need to start talking as an African bloc.

If there’s one person who knows what’s good for investment, it’s Busi Mabuza, the Chairperson of the
Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), a national development finance institution promoting economic growth and industrial development in South Africa.
Exactly a month after the BRICS Summit, which brought together Brazil, Russia, India and China to South Africa in July, we met with Mabuza for her views on why such forums are key for Africa:
What, according to you, was the biggest outcome of the BRICS Summit?
The countries’ focus was on attracting investment, so we had presidents of the BRICS countries coming with goody bags to the country, especially President Xi Jinping who made quite a substantial commitment to investment in South Africa. What I liked most though was the ‘BRICS Plus’ approach. The invite to other African countries to be part of some of the sessions of BRICS, because with the Continental Free Trade Area Agreement, I think we need to start talking as an African bloc.
South Africa has a minute population compared to the other BRICS countries for us to be an attractive preposition to those large economies….we have to speak with the voice that talks for the rest of Africa as well. I also liked the fact that there was conversation in a concerted [way] at a BRICS women’s forum…I didn’t see the evidence of it taking shape yet, but the fact that it was a topic of discussion, that there were initiatives around it…I think is very promising and exciting.
One of the conversations at the conference was the focus on an open economy, what would that mean for South Africa and the rest of Africa?
We should have free trade between the BRICS partners and South Africa, precisely because South Africa is quite a small economy compared to the BRICS partners.
We export raw material to those countries, they export into South Africa finished goods. So the trade still needs to be developed. We need to migrate upwards in terms of our trade mix and portfolio mix, so that if the economies are open, if the trade is open and the tariff barriers are done away with, then it shouldn’t be to the detriment of one economy. There has to be a win-win complementarity.
The other aspect I think very important is the movement of people. We have visa requirements sometimes which are quite onerous and I think there was a lot of time dedicated to talking about those obstacles. People find that when they have investments in South Africa and bring professionals to the country, they can’t stay for a long enough period for them to actually get the business up and going before they go back in order to meet the visa requirements. I think the government is making a concerted effort on that front in trying to make sure visa requirements are not as stringent and do not become an obstacle for our trading partners.
As African countries, we now need to start working towards bringing down all the tariffs, trade tariffs and the non-tariff barriers between exchanging goods and services amongst the different African countries. It’s going to take long because some of the issues are quite complex…So that would be my understanding of opening up the economy. I think there are risks on the one side and opportunities on the other side. What’s important is we move in an orderly fashion and ensure that as we do so, there is a win-win proposition for all countries.
How important are summits such as BRICS for South Africa?
It feels as though we are reintegrating into the rest of the world. I think we were almost at some stage a pariah state but I think the fact that we have been received so warmly since the new president [Cyril Ramaphosa] early this year is a great positive because it means there’s a lot of goodwill in the rest of the world for us.
South Africa’s economy has been sluggish, mainly because of lack of investment. There are other challenges. Our unemployment rates are shocking. I was looking at the statistics compared to our BRICS partners – we are at 27% officially…The need is for us to attract not just the political goodwill of the BRICS partners, but their hard cash into the economy. Not just the portfolio flow – we are not looking for people who are going to buy shares on the stock exchange and sell them as quickly as they bought them if things go wrong – we are looking for people who will bring projects into South Africa, people who will create jobs for South Africans.
[For example], the Chinese, are known for bringing their local projects that they build in countries. But I think as long as the balance is a significant majority – South Africans employed in those projects – then it will be to our benefit. Then there are opportunities for us to show them a thing or two. We do well as far as women’s representation is concerned, not in the private sector, but in the public sector; we are still ahead of our BRICS partners.
You will be amazed that our rail and road infrastructure in terms of area is way ahead of the other countries. So there are opportunities for us to see whether our skill is taken to those countries.
At the IDC, how do you promote women in business and youth?
In the recent past, we have realized something we should have known a long time ago. People focus on what is measured, and we have therefore started measuring the amounts that are collected and dispersed to youth-owned and women-owned businesses and that has done wonders for us. Four years ago, we didn’t know how much of our funding was being dispersed to companies owned by women or was being dispersed to companies owned by young people.
Now, because management is incentivized to disperse a certain percentage of our funding to women-owned and youth-owned businesses, we are seeing more and more. There are years when – I think it was the previous financial year – we overshot our targets in terms of the amounts dispersed to youth-owned and women-owned businesses. We of course pay attention to our employment equity profile within but we also look at the employment equity performance of the businesses we invest in. That’s a space where we have seen sluggish progress but I think now that we are focusing on it, when people come and look for investment, we probe their employment equity profile. We see male management teams and we ask them why and how long it’s going to take them to bring in female talent and young people. And I expect that we will start seeing a shift on that front as well.
And if the IDC portfolio companies start living as good examples of what this country should be doing more and more, then I will be happy.
In August, the IDC approved a funding of R16.7 billion ($1.1 billion). What kind of businesses will that money go towards?
The companies are diverse. We need to be focusing on industrial development and a significant majority of the companies that benefitted from our R16.7 billion disbursement were industrial companies. However, because of where the economic cycle is, there’s quite a number of distressed companies. We’re a development financial institution, therefore, we would like to think of ourselves as patient investors. And where companies are distressed, but we can see there’s an opportunity to be viable down the line, we want to support them…
What are the new industries the IDC is currently looking at?
In fact, we have a new division called New Industries. We have recognized that for IDC and South Africa to remain relevant, we need to understand the 4th Industrial Revolution.
The new era businesses cannot be valued in a similar fashion as one would value the retail company where you look at the profits and you say ‘ok, the business is doing well’.
There, you look at the technology, you look at the potential of that technology and you support the business on that basis.
I was fascinated there is a company in South Africa working in the Internet of Things (IoT) space because it is tempting to assume that those new technologies are just being developed in the rest of the world but that South Africans have actually started companies in that space is exciting for me.

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Why We Need ‘Hard Cash In The Economy’

Kuseni Dlamini, the Non-Executive Director of Massmart + Walmart, on retail tech and trends in Africa.

What is the future of retail in Africa? 
The African retail market is very robust and dynamic with a massive opportunity for growth. We have seen the rise of urbanization and industrialization in African economies, with the diversification of these economies, moving away from your traditional industries such as mining and agriculture, to other services such as ICT, so that the retail sector may thrive.
Consumer spending is projected to reach $860 billion by 2020 and increase to approximately a trillion by 2025. So you could say it is doing well… as people’s disposable income increases. That sets the basis for the retail industry to grow. The penetration of formal retail in Africa is still very low, in some markets such as Nigeria, the [informal] retail industry still accounts for 80% [of the economy], so there lies a huge opportunity for retailers such as Massmart to come in and establish their shops, playing a role in the formalization and modernization of the retail industry. Even though the informal sector of the retail industry is still an opportunity, we are still the largest wholesaler in Africa that has informal traders, kiosks and spaza shops that are still our customers. They come to us for their stock to sell to their customers. It is a win-win partnership we have with them across Africa.
Are robots now being incorporated in the retail industry? 
The digitalization of the retail industry is a way to better serve our customers. Consumers are increasingly time-poor, they are constantly looking for convenience, they want retailers to innovate and offer them the best service in the most convenient way to their lifestyles, so that requires us to constantly be innovative as we are moving into the online space.
Our online sales across our four divisions – Game, Builders Warehouse, DionWired and Makro – increased by 47%. That is the direction retail is headed globally. It is moving towards the omni-channel space, where it won’t just be bricks and mortar alone. We also don’t believe that it will move to the other extreme, where it would just be online [service].
How does African retail compare to the world? 
The retail industry in South Africa has always actively tried to be plugged-in to global retail best practices. Even before Massmart became part of Walmart, we have always benched-marked our business practices and offerings against the best retailer in the world. So there is a high level of sophistication in the South African retail industry. Our retail market is not in isolation, they are aware of what is happening in other countries such as Europe and Asia in terms of new thinking and new practices, we are at the cutting-edge. Though we are not far behind, there are opportunities to scale up and drive innovation, be proactive to customers’ changing needs and expectations. Customers are demanding high quality and retailers need to be responsive to that.
What is the future of Massmart in Africa? 
In the next three years, Massmart is looking at increasing its trading space by 35.6% and we believe that will position us to take advantage of the opportunities available from medium to long term. We also believe that partnering with local suppliers is vital to our success. We have a supplier development fund with which we are supporting 33 businesses and those businesses have helped us distribute imports as they have also enabled our suppliers to also export their goods to parts of the country. We also invest in black-owned as well as women businesses that can become part of our supply chain at a local and regional level to a global level.
How do you develop upcoming retailers? 
It is important for us because they are our retailers, if they succeed in their businesses, it means that they will continue to buy from us and sell to their customers. We need to build an inclusive economy in South Africa. We need small and medium enterprises to have a space in the economy. It can’t just be the dominance of the big retailers.

Category: Interview