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Bayport emerged as the best financial institution to work for in Colombia in the 2018 Great Place To Work survey. Named top in its sector, the operation is also the fourth best workplace for women in the country.
The Great Place to Work Institute® is a global leader in analysing and understanding the psychosocial health of companies. One of its activities is the annual Trust Index employee survey.
Bayport Colombia participated in 2017 for the first time, and got a score of 77.7 out of 100. In 2018, the score jumped to 89.1, with 99% of Bayporteers completing the survey. Bayport was one of 201 Colombian companies to participate in the survey, and one of 102 in the category of 500 employees and less.
The operation used the Great Place to Work® model to guide its transformation process over the past two years. The annual measurement gave management a good understanding of what staff members needed and expected, and they used the results to put strategies and action plans in place to close the gaps. In addition, during 2018 the operation conducted its own surveys and focus groups, and involved all teams in the creation of a good workplace environment.
A notable initiative that flowed from these engagement processes, was an 80-hour certified training programme that all leaders in the business went through to develop the skills that aligned them with Bayport Colombia’s leadership model.
Bayport Financial Services Mozambique has won the Local Currency Bond Deal of the Year award for 2018. The award was presented at Bonds, Loans & Sukuk Africa, an event that is part of the international Bonds & Loans Awards of GFC Media Group. The official award ceremony took place at the Cape Town International Conference Centre on 13 March this year.
The Bonds & Loans Awards is the first and only competition that recognises excellence in structured finance and capital markets in emerging economies. The development of capital markets boosts economic growth by releasing much-needed capital to fund the growth of SMEs and large corporates alike.
The Bayport in-country team issued the bond with the support of the Bayport Group Capital Markets team, and Banco BiG and Standard Bank as arranging banks.
Now with a portfolio of 110 000 customers and MZN 7.1 billion in extended loans, Bayport Mozambique first entered the Mozambique capital market in 2016, So far, the operation has issued six bonds with a total value of just under MZN 2billion.
The partnership between BML and Innovation: Africa (iA) to bring solar power and clean water to rural villages in Africa is truly The Bayport Way in action.
iA is an Israeli non-profit organization based in the USA. Its goal is to reach 1 000 rural African villages, impacting six million people, with solar, water and agricultural technologies in the next seven years.
By mid-2018, it had completed over 180 solar installations bringing light, access to clean water, improved education, refrigeration for vaccines and medicines, and proper nutrition and food security to over a million people in remote villages in Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania, Ethiopia, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal and Cameroon.
In June 2018, BML entered into a partnership with iA to help the organisation reach communities in the countries where Bayport does business. At that time, iA had already implemented 18 solar systems in Tanzania, 16 of them powering schools and medical clinics in the Bagamoyo and Chalinze regions. Following the agreement, iA re-located its Tanzania office to the Dodoma region where, with Bayport’s help, it planned to do a further five water projects and two solar projects.
In addition to the projects in Tanzania, and thanks to the Bayport partnership, iA started work in Zambia during this year. Similarly, through Bayport’s area manager in South Africa’s Limpopo province, iA was able to establish the contacts it needed to start a new project in that region.
“The partnership with iA is a good fit for us,” says Stuart Stone, joint CEO of Bayport. “Both our organisations are employing technology and innovation to give people in emerging markets access to the means to improve their lives and build a more secure future.”
In addition to funding, Bayport supports iA with strategy and financial modelling.
Judging by the slew of awards it recently won, Bayport Savings and Loans is the darling of the financial services sector in Ghana.
2018 ended on a high note for Bayport Savings and Loans in Ghana. The operation won three nationwide awards in the financial services sector, and was ranked 57th among the top 100 companies in the country.
These achievements are particularly remarkable given the huge changes the operation went through over the past two years following the merger between Bayport Ghana and CFC.
Nii Amankra Tetteh, Managing Director of Bayport Savings and Loans, says that the awards are a reminder to stay on course and to keep on doing the right things. “There was nothing easy about what we accomplished in 2018: from the merger, to the shift in strategy, changes in leadership and ways of working, and significant operational paradigm shifts. Yet we won in spite of the flux, and in the midst of much turbulence. This is due to the resilience of our Bayporteers and their desire for more. I salute every member of our team for their passion.”
All the awards were adjudicated independently and involved audit firms looking at the profitability, revenue and return on assets of all the nominees. “We do not strive in isolation, but function within a community,” says Nii. “The awards show the benefits of opening up our operations to scrutiny, critique and collaboration.”
The awards Bayport Savings and Loans won
1. Ghana Finance Innovative Awards:
2. Ghana Finance Accountancy Awards:
3. Ghana Club 100:
More about the Ghana Club 100 Awards
The Ghana Club 100 (GC 100) is an annual list of the 100 companies that have contributed most to the growth of the country’s economy. The GC 100 is about corporate excellence. Companies that make it into the top 100 are role models for the private sector and provide a forum for corporate Ghana to interact with the government at a high level.
The 2018 edition of the GC100 Awards ran under the theme “Technology, Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Opportunities for Growth and Job Creation”.
During 2017, the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), acquired 51% of Bayport South Africa through its investment vehicle, the Public Investment Corporation of South Africa.
As one of the largest investment managers in Africa, the PIC wants to use Bayport South Africa as a vehicle for transformation by creating a bank capable of providing transformational financial solutions to consumers who fall in the gap market. This large, and largely neglected market, will in future benefit from the vision of inclusion and advancement shared by Bayport and the PIC.
The 51% shareholding acquired will be warehoused by the GEPF while a broad-based black economic empowerment consortium is being established to take it over.
The consortium will have four groups of shareholders:
In November 2018, Tiso Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd entered the consortium as the strategic black economic empowerment partner, taking up a 30% share.
The consortium will furthermore make a significant investment in BML, result in it owning a 10% shareholding in the company. This transaction supports our goal to create a fully transformed enterprise that helps to bring about economic empowerment and transformation in South Africa.
All proceeds generated through the sale of shares in Bayport South Africa will ultimately be reinvested into the operation to build the business and expand its product offering.
Bayport South Africa remains a vital member of the Bayport family as an associate company and key strategic investment. Furthermore, BML retains its seats on the Bayport South Africa board and will continue to provide technical and management inputs to the business, and maintaining its links with global capital markets.
Both the BML and Bayport South Africa transactions have significant positive implications for our business, especially in terms of balance sheet strength, enabling us to grow into areas that we have already identified as strategic for the future.
Bayport Botswana has become the first credit provider in Africa, and the first payroll lender in the world, to receive Client Protection Certification from the Smart Campaign. The certification means that Bayport Botswana’s policies and practices uphold the Smart Campaign’s seven Client Protection Principles. These principles cover such important areas as pricing, transparency, fair and respectful treatment and prevention of over-indebtedness.
The Smart Campaign is an international initiative that aims to unite microfinance institutions (MFIs) around a common goal, namely regarding customers as the driving force of the industry. Its Client Protection Certification programme provides a shared global standard for client protection and is a way of validating those institutions that are doing the right thing.
Certification is furthermore an independent, objective and therefore credible seal of confidence that an institution is investing in its relationship with its clients and doing its best to treat them fairly, protect them and inform them of their rights and responsibilities.
Having successfully completed the certification process, Bayport Botswana joins 29 other unsecured lenders from Latin America, Eastern Europe and South Asia that have been certified.
Gerald Mabureza, CEO of Bayport Botswana, couldn’t be prouder of his team’s achievement. “We have always been committed to protecting our customers, but this independent validation lends credibility to our efforts. It demonstrates to our community and our customers that we work every day to improve our own service and the micro-lending industry as a whole.”
In extending the Smart Campaign’s congratulations to Bayport Botswana, Isabelle Barrès, Director of the Smart Campaign, commended Gerald and his team for their “willingness to do the work it takes to prepare for and undergo the intensive process of evaluation. This is indicative of your deep commitment to your customers.”
Over-indebtedness is a problem in Botswana with many consumers taking on more debt than they can aord. Bayport Botswana, which celebrates its fifth year in business in 2015, has been working with relevant stakeholders to address the issue and to help strengthen regulations to protect consumers against unscrupulous micro-lenders.
“Smart Campaign certification is also an achievement for Botswana as a country,” says Mabureza. “Without the regulatory framework the government has put in place, Bayport Botswana could not have achieved certification. We are indeed proud to be on the same responsible-lending journey as our country.”
About the Smart Campaign
The Smart Campaign was formed in 2009 and aims to improve client protection in microfinance through better understanding and use of client protection principles by microfinance institutions (MFIs). Certification of MFIs is one of the primary activities of the Campaign. The Client Protection Certification programme, launched in January 2013, is possible because of partnerships with the MasterCard Foundation, Ford Foundation, the International Finance Corporation, the Multilateral Investment Fund (a member of the IDB group) and microfinance pioneer Accion. It has been shaped through cooperation with dozens of supporting organizations, notably the Smart Campaign’s co-founder, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP).
For further information, visit www.smartcampaign.org.
