Odgers Berndtson Interviews Barclays Africa Group’s CEO

In a recent article by Odgers Berndtson, Di Rix sat down with Maria Ramos, CEO of Barclays Africa Group to discuss transforming the bank and relationship with customers across Africa.

The following is an excerpt from the interview: “Twenty years after apartheid, South Africa presents Ramos with challenges and opportunities in equal measure. While unemployment has doubled to 25 percent and half of the country’s 53 million people are said to live in poverty, less than a quarter of adults have a bank account. So Ramos’s key business goal is to position Barclays “as the bank of choice when clients and customers across Africa think about their banking needs. We want to become the ‘Go-To’ bank on the continent by helping our customers and clients achieve their ambitions in the right way.”

That includes, she says, “increasing access to financial markets through our Citizenship program. We have supported the establishment of 27,600 village savings groups, linked 2,000 informal savings groups to our branches and reached 582,000 beneficiaries over the past five years.”

The full interview is published on Odgers Berndtson’s website. Read the full article.