Over 15 years in banking have taught Sibongile Moyo just how cutthroat the industry can be. “But it doesn’t need to be like that,” she tells The CEO Magazine.
When the opportunity to lead Nedbank Zimbabwe as Managing Director presented itself in April 2020, Moyo recognized a chance to make a difference.
“I saw the potential to create a collegiate work environment,” she explains. “One where teams are really comfortable, they have psychological safety, they own what they’re doing and they feel empowered.”
“We are known in the market for putting our clients first.”
As she reflects on her first three years in the role, she can look back with pride on having already achieved the kind of conditions she set out to build.
“The most rewarding element of this journey for me is having a great work environment while still shooting the lights out in terms of our financial targets and shareholder value metrics,” she says with a smile.
Culture club
Moyo’s career in the finance industry was fast-tracked after completing her PhD in Natural Resources from the University of Alberta, Canada, in 2006.
“I started at quite a senior level because I was a doctorate holder,” she says.
Her first role after returning to Zimbabwe was Head of Financial Markets and Treasury for Premier Banking Corporation. In 2011, she moved to Ecobank and was promoted to Executive Director in 2014.
In Nedbank, Moyo has joined an institution with a rich history. Established in 1956 as the Merchant Bank of Central Africa, in 2003 it rebranded to MBCA Bank Limited. Around that time, South Africa’s Nedbank took an interest in the bank. And in 2018, it became a fully-fledged franchise bearing the Nedbank logo as a subsidiary.
For three of those five years, Moyo has been Managing Director, and part of her role has been to oversee the move from a local bank with an international shareholder to a full franchise of the Nedbank Group.
“There has been a lot of change across systems, technology and culture,” she explains. “Culture has been the big one.”
Superpowers
Leadership has always been in the cards for Moyo, aligning naturally with her drive to make a difference.
“I knew that I would end up in leadership because I was groomed for the roles – in a way it became a given,” she explains.
Now, empathy and purpose are her superpowers.
“Success is empowering those around me to go onto inclusive and impartial leadership – to being able to delegate, coach and encourage them to take ownership of something,” she adds.
It’s more than a coincidence that the Nedbank logo is green, it seems.
“We’re very much driven by our purpose, and we are called the ‘green bank’ for a reason,” she says. “If you look at our vision, it’s to be the most admired bank in Africa by stakeholders, clients and communities and to do good for those around us in their day-to-day.”
It’s a goal achieved by making an impact.
“At the group level, we were the first commercial bank in Africa to outline and commit to a decarbonization strategy,” Moyo explains. “We’re also the first on the continent to issue a green bond, on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 2021.”
At a grassroots level, the bank also invests in youth entrepreneurial development, education and work experience for young graduates, particularly in marginalized areas of the country.
“We support sport for youth as a unifier,” she says.
Much weight has been thrown behind netball, one of the most widely played women’s sports in Africa. Nedbank sponsors Zimbabwe’s national netball team, the Gems (currently ranked 13th in the world), as well as the country’s Premier Netball League.
Leader of the pack
As Nedbank pursues its vision, its reputation is growing for responsive, client-centric service.
“We pay unparalleled focus to service excellence, and we are known in the market for putting our clients first,” she explains.
Along with comprehensive employee training, the bank also harnesses the power of technology to delight its clients.
“We were the first to enable a 24-hour contact center and create a ticketing process where our clients have direct access for escalation of their queries to executives, including myself,” she reveals.
“We’re also leading in terms of brand sentiment, which is something we have built up in the past three years.”
“There has been a lot of change across systems, technology and culture.”
In other words, Nedbank is punching well above its weight in the sector.
“In terms of market share, when considering total assets and other metrics, we might not make the top five. But when you look at service excellence, we are in the lead because that is what we focus on,” Moyo points out.
Where Nedbank also stands out in the market is in diversity, equity and inclusion: of Zimbabwe’s 19 banking institutions, Moyo is the only female Managing Director. More than that, there’s an almost 50–50 split in terms of women in senior management and on the executive committee.
“Even on our board, we have quite a significant representation of women,” she says.
Scaling up
It’s clear Moyo has been the steady hand the bank has needed as Nedbank finds its new identity amid Zimbabwe’s currency instability.
“When I started, we had the lowest levels of capitalization in the market, owing to the policy measures that devalued our local currency and then created a value problem,” she says.
From this low base, the bank has managed to build up capital organically from retained earnings and preservation of its core capital in highly liquid offshore assets.
“We’ve come to a point where, in terms of quality, we have one of the leading equity positions in the market, and we want to keep growing that,” she says.
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As such, Nedbank Zimbabwe’s contribution, regarding overall group performance has increased significantly.
“We’ve managed to grow in the last year in profitability as a business by over 300 percent, with a return on equity over 60 percent and cost-income ratio below 50 percent,” she says.
The regulatory landscape has also improved; the bank topped 2022 ratings after inspections from regulators at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Beyond building on what she has already achieved, Moyo says the plans for medium-term growth are to expand its coverage across the country.
“We need to achieve scale,” she says.
To do that, she is turning to the Group’s custom-built ‘Modern Evolution’ technology platform, which she says is very different from a traditional banking platform.
“It’s built around the client and their data and then adds on products and services; whereas standard tech products start with the products, and each time you want to sell a new product to a client, you have to start all over again,” she explains.
“We’ve managed to grow in the last year in profitability as a business by over 300 percent.”
Such an approach allows the business to offer its banking propositions to the previously unbanked people in the market at scale, with quick account opening and a mobile wallet that is set to arrive on Zimbabwean soil after success in South Africa, where more than a million clients were onboarded in the first 12 months of its launch.
Moyo is also enthusiastic about growing the small and medium-size enterprise (SME) business segment through digital offerings, such as mobile banking apps and ATM cards. The bank has gone as far as to launch an SME handbook in both a digital and paper format to guide customers through setting up their businesses, working with banks and applying for bank loans.
It’s been so well received that the book is currently being translated into Shona and Ndebele, two of Zimbabwe’s local languages.
Fair trade
With tech such a huge area of focus, Moyo is delighted to be able to work with significant local tech partners such as Zimswitch, Zimbabwe’s electronic funds switch and clearing house, and African fintech provider EFT Corporation, which enables the bank’s point-of-sale infrastructure.
Along with these long-standing partners, Moyo is committed to ensuring a significant proportion of its supply custom is allocated to women-owned businesses.
“We’ve gone into a partnership with a female-owned business trust, and its supplier base is made available to us,” she explains. “We deliberately make sure we include those names in any procurement items that, as a bank, we need.”
Moyo’s extensive experience has taught her that it’s important to do business – but in a way that is inclusive, empathetic and nurturing.
“It’s important that those around us are comfortable in their workplaces because it’s where they spend most of their time,” she says.
“And to do business in a way that our community feels like we are their partners, and we’re there to help them with their long-term goals.”
