Interview with Mr. Daniel Asiedu, Managing Director, OmniBSIC Bank

⛤⛤⛤ Mr. Simon Hughes of International Banker interviews Mr. Daniel Asiedu, Managing Director of OmniBSIC Bank to discuss the bank’s financial performance, improving the customer experience and the culture of innovation within OmniBSIC. ⛤⛤⛤ Today, International Banker is joined by Mr. Daniel Asiedu, managing director of OmniBSIC Bank, to discuss the bank’s financial performance, improving the customer experience and the culture of innovation within OmniBSIC. Thank you very much, Simon. It’s good to see you again. And it’s a privilege for me to be here. Now, in terms of the bank’s 2025 performance, the audited financial statements revealed that you managed to achieve an approximate doubling of operating income from Ghanaian cedi 746.1 million to Ghanaian cedi 1.43 billion. How did the bank manage to achieve such massive growth? And what role did fees and trading lines play in this growth? And why did these particular items perform so well? Thank you very much, Simon. For us, first of all, we want to appreciate God and give God thanks for this phenomenal performance. Again, we are also grateful to all our stakeholders, especially our customers. And this shows that they believe in the brand strongly, and they appreciate the brand. Currently, it’s the fastest-growing brand in Ghana, and everybody’s talking about the brand. Not only did the fees and commissions double, but almost all the lines doubled. So, if you look at the balance sheet, we doubled almost everything, and then the P&L, ultimately leading to the doubling of the profit. We don’t see ourselves as just a financial, as a bank, but we see ourselves as a financial partner. And perhaps that has given customers the confidence to give us more business. Our correspondent banks also have had, now have, a lot of confidence in us. They’ve increased our lines. We are also, we have also been onboarded by new correspondent banks. But beyond all that, like I said, customers are entrusting us with a lot more of their business. And, so, naturally, our fees, commissions, etc., etc., have gone up significantly. And that’s why you are seeing the numbers that you’re seeing. Now, as part of your strategy to strengthen brand reputation, you’re upgrading key digital platforms, including integrating customer relationship management (CRM) software with the bank’s social-media handles to deliver a better omnichannel experience. Can you tell us how this CRM will work in practice, and what are its key features and benefits from your point of view? Thank you very much. So, the customer relationship management software, as it were, it’s a software that, it’s supposed to integrate all our social-media platforms. And what that seeks to achieve is to make sure that at, within the shortest possible time, the customer’s able to interact with us, or they are able to reach us, and we are able to respond quickly. Because speed is of the essence. I’ve always maintained that what the bank down the street is selling and what I’m selling is not very different. Of course, we try to create a niche for ourselves by making sure that we are quite innovative and creative. But to a greater extent, most of the time, we sell the same thing. However, what this will do is to make sure that as soon as you make an attempt to reach us that there are no delays. And so, at the back end, the customer relationship management software prompts us to say, look, there is a customer, there’s a customer request, and we’re quickly able to attend to that. And it’s so unique because customers now are so sophisticated, they don’t have time to waste. And we all say, time is money. And so the earlier you’re able to attend to your customers, the better. And that’s why we think that this will help a great deal. Now, to help support this improvement of the customer experience, you’re focusing more on personalisation, including tailored financial insights, targeted product recommendations and enhanced self-service capabilities. When it comes to delivering tailored financial insights, how is the bank able to deliver a tailored service? How does this particular personalisation service work in practice? And what role does technology play, rather like the back end of your CRM, in driving more tailored, more personalised financial insights for each customer? Thank you. So, beyond what we have running along sectoral lines, we also have specific products targeted at the various segments of the market. So we have a product for women; we have a personalised product for women; we have a personalised product for children; we have a personalised product for students; we have a product for…we have a product called a blend, which is like a product for the visually impaired, etc., etc. And that’s because we don’t want anybody to be left out. Everybody and anybody who wants banking products and services should be able to interact with us. And that is what we are doing. Thankfully, technology makes it a lot easier for us. And, so, we are investing heavily in technology to make sure that these products are personalised to cater for the needs of the targeted market. And, like I said, of course, the relationship managers are there to make sure that they bring these products and services to these customers who will need them. At the very beginning of this, you mentioned the kind of broader team and the staff and the importance of their roles. Within that, you’ve got dedicated relationship managers. And they seem to be very important for the bank, especially for ensuring this kind of optimal customer satisfaction. What would you say are the most important attributes that relationship managers must possess to ensure that customers are consistently satisfied with the bank’s service? And how does the bank ensure that relationship managers are sufficiently well trained to do that job? Thank you. So, it starts from the selection process. We don’t just hire, but we select, and that’s because we take our time to select our people. And that’s because we are coming to work with customers who must be understood. And, so, during that process, we profile you to make sure that you fit in. Now, once you come in, naturally you’ll be given some level of training to make sure that you are up to speed when it comes to understanding the customer. And then we have a policy that every staff must be trained at least once a year. And we send some, depending on the level, some will go to some of the leading business schools in the world. So, this year, for instance, we are going to have people going to Harvard, people going to INSEAD, Columbia, London Business School and the like. Even at my level, I still go for executive-management training, and that’s because I was in Oxford last year, and I’ve done some of the best business schools in the world. The whole idea is to make sure that we are all updated and up to speed when it comes to understanding the customer. And, so, once we do that, and the staff are positioned, beyond that, even the attitude, and so we keep emphasising attitude. We don’t just speak about customer experience, but we walk the talk—understanding the customer, taking our time to appreciate why the customer is important to us. And it’s a cultural thing. It flows through the organisation. Everybody knows that the customer is important, and so every opportunity we have. And we also learn from the experiences that we’ve gathered over the years—some of the things that customers need, what some of these customers want, how they behave and all that. And over time, we’ve leveraged on that. And then, finally, we also run along sectoral lines. So, if you look at our corporate banking, for instance, we don’t just have corporate banking as a group, but we have people specialise in telecom; we have people specialise in transport, mining, etc., etc. So that once you specialise in those sectors, you’re able to speak the language of the sectors, and you’re able to serve customers well. So, this is what makes us stand out as a bank. Now, as a bank that values the customer relationship so highly, what are the key qualities possessed by OmniBSIC Bank that ensure it is ideally positioned to cultivate long-lasting relationships, as you were saying, with its customers? And would you say that the bank’s brand identity has been a key factor in helping to foster long-term customer relationships recently? Thank you. And so, like I said, for us, five years ago, not too many people knew about the brand. In Ghana today, it’s the fastest-growing bank, doubling the results almost every year. And it shows you that customers have come to accept the brand. The qualities we possess are our people, the system, the structures. And we, like I said, we don’t just offer you generic products. Customers have come to know that we are quite innovative and creative, and so they know. And, so, we’ve gotten to the point where customers are the ones, you know, more or less recommending the brand to other customers, and that is making the work a lot easier for us. Because if you serve a customer where the tendency is likely to tell one or two people about the brand. And that is what is making us stand out. And everybody’s involved when it comes to customer service—not just the front end but the back end, the middle end, the board level, executive management—everybody’s involved. Because for us, it’s all about the customer, the customer, the customer. Now, during your interview with International Banker in April 2025, you mentioned that OmniBSIC Bank’s product offerings are so unique, which, in turn, sets the bank apart from the competition. Now, can you briefly take us through the main stages of the bank’s typical product-design process? How significant a role does customer feedback play in influencing this process from the very outset? Again, thank you, Simon. As you’re aware, we have relationship managers who interact with customers, and these are personalised relationship managers, or they are unique to every customer. And what they do is that they try to understand the customer’s business. So, we don’t just roll out a generic product, but we make sure we understand your business, and we structure the products to serve your needs. Because we also run along sectoral lines, we are able to understand each sector very well and to determine what customers will need. And we just talked about, you know, personalised service, where there are various segments in the market: women, children, visually impaired and the like. So, once we understand their needs, we get the feedback. There’s what we call a project team called the Project Development Committee. They sit down to look at the requests. They design it, ask a lot of questions, and then it goes through the necessary approvals up to the regulator level. Once we have that approval, then we implement. And in all this, technology plays a key role, because it’s all about technology, technology, technology. And that’s why we are investing heavily in technology, to make sure that we’re able to achieve this. Thank you. So, technology is playing a really important part in that development in terms of your future strategy. Exactly. How challenging, though, has it been for you to foster a culture of innovation within the bank in recent years? And you talked about all the staff kind of being involved. And what are some of the key ways in which you ensure that relevant staff are always sufficiently educated and trained when it comes to innovation, digitalisation, technology—all important aspects of the bank’s business model? Yeah. So, so like I said earlier, for us, once we know what our customers want, and then we just deploy the necessary resources. We don’t allow costs or funding to deter us. For us, there are some of the things we are doing now, we may not, we are not even seeing the benefit now. But we believe that ultimately, we will see the benefit. Once we think that the customer needs this, we go all out. And so what we are doing is to say, “Look, if our customers need these products, then can we design them? Then can we sort of go out there and make sure?” So, the culture of innovation permeates through the organisation. We have dedicated teams, but all they do is to say, “Look, can we look at the industry, customers’ business, think and come up with products?” We, at our strategic meetings…we have, what we do every month called the monthly performance review. During the monthly performance review, we take time to form, you know, different groups to say, “Can you go and brainstorm and come up with innovative products and services that we think our industry, our customers will need based on the feedback?” When we go for our half-yearly review, we do the same. Our full-year strategy review will do the same. And, so, these allow us to come up with relevant products and services, and everybody’s aware. And incidentally, or let me say that for those who are, who come up with unique products and services that we can introduce into the market, they are handsomely rewarded, and everybody’s excited about it. Like I said earlier, also we train our people, you know, we train our people. Depending on the role you are playing, we make sure that we train them. And we really don’t mind how much it will cost us. And that’s why sometimes we send people all over the world, just to make sure that we train. We are thinking of some of the banks that have done well, very well, especially when it comes to electronic banking and, you know, using technology to drive banking. We are thinking of, you know, going to study how they did it and all that so that ultimately, we will make sure that we are a digital-first bank in Ghana. OmniBSIC Bank’s brand tagline, which you mentioned earlier, “Not just another bank”, seems to be making big waves across Ghana these days. What do you expect to be the single most significant way that you will demonstrate in 2026 that you are not just another bank? For example, through the launch of a unique product or through an innovative approach to customer relationship management. Why does this particular choice, do you believe, set you apart from your competition? Thank you so much. I love this question. You’re asking for one, but I’ll give you more than one. I’ll give you two. And that’s because we are quite excited about what we want to do in 2026. We are not just having a slogan of “Not just another bank”, but we are living it. And we are walking the talk. So, the first thing we are looking at is to say that we want to put banking in the palms of our customers. And that’s because, when you look at our world now, it’s all about technology, technology, technology. So, we are coming up with a product where just with your phone in your hands, you can do almost every banking activity short of just wanting to physically take cash from the bank. But everything you should be able to do at the palms, in your palms, with your device, handset, whatever it is. And that’s going to be unique, the first of its kind. And then we are also looking at the interactive telemachine, where you walk into a banking hall—you don’t see the physical banking hall, you don’t see anybody, but you have this machine that can attend to all your needs, everything you can think. Of course, there will be, you have people in the remote places, back end, whom, if you want to talk to, if there’s a need for that. The machine itself will be able to serve you. But who knows, maybe you want some additional information. You can talk to people. It’s never been done in our part of the world, and it’s going to be the first. And we intend to roll that out in 2026. And so, you ask for one, I’m giving you two. I can go on and on, but let me stop at these two. And we are quite excited about it. Thank you. Well, we look forward to monitoring your progress on both of those products and all the other innovations as well. Thank you very much for your time today. Thank you, Simon, and it’s a pleasure for me to be here once again.