Interview with CDFP Student, Farouq Kakuru

Farouq is experiencing an illustrious career within banking. He began his career as a Teller with Stanbic Bank, where he received several promotions due to his performance, and now is a Relationship Manager of Electronic Channels at Bank of Africa, Uganda. He has completed both the Certificate in Digital Money (CIDM) and Leading Digital Money Markets (LDMM) courses with DFI and is on track to completing his Certified Digital Finance Practitioner (CDFP) certification during 2021. The CIDM course was recommended to him by a manager, and he has already recommended the course to others due to its practical focus, discussion on current trends and ideas improving lives of customers and communities. His move to Bank of Africa happened recently and he is tasked to innovate solutions that will simply customer experiences to fulfill customer needs. He attributes his confidence and ability to articulate well at the interview specifically to the knowledge he gained during CIDM.

He seems himself as a passionate, energetic and a high-performance orientated leader with a focus on customer-centricity. This current role is perfect for him, being able to build teams to smooth client experiences, something he is passionate about. He loves to connect with people and enlighten himself with knowledge whenever the chance arises. This is why he’s been an active member of the Kampala Community of Practice and particularly enjoyed the discussions and different thoughts that were shared in the online campus whilst on the CIDM and LDMM course.

Farouq felt the added benefit of attending a COP is that it is where minds meet and share views on world trends, new solutions on the market and identify issues in our country that we can being change to through the Digital Frontiers Association (DFA). The DFA is Uganda’s association for digital finance professionals which was developed by members of the Kampala COP.

Farouq is always looking at ways to use digital methods to simplify work and gives clients a better service. Since joining the Bank of Africa, he has transformed the onboarding process for internet banking from an 8 hour to an almost instant process which has led to an impressive growth in sign up from 200 clients a month to 1,500 and this figure is still growing. It has also led to a 30% growth in transactions which also increased revenue, and this growth is only going to continue to increase.

Looking to the future Farouq plans to become a leader in the digital finance space in Uganda and wants to work with his DFA colleagues to influence decisions, speed up digitalization of the country, and move towards a cashless economy. He would also like to contribute to creating a scoring system to make credit more accessible, and to improve the simplicity to obtain and use identification.

He leaves us with some final thoughts about digitalization and change. Banks used to have numerous tellers in branches and now together with developments such as AMTs, cash deposit machines, and internet banking his old branch now has just two tellers. He believes the role of the teller may become obsolete in the near future as “The world is evolving so fast. Only people that can adapt will remain relevant. It will take a change in mindset and acquiring new skill to enable you to be relevant and sought after in this era.” Are you ready to take on this fruitful journey to becoming CDFP certified?

Thank you for taking the time to share your journey with us Farouq and we look forward to being able to award you with your CDFP certification in 2021!