Besides being a renowned TV news anchor, Rukushana Namuyimba also holds a powerful corporate position at DFCU Bank where she runs Corporate Affairs under which falls the docket of communications. DFCU bank, which she joined after it became apparent her former employer Vodafone had no future, has lately been in the eye of a storm with news websites persistently reporting that all isn’t well. Nile Post, a sister news outlet to NBS TV for which she works in the news department is among those that haven’t been kind on the DFCU story. Like many others did, Nile Post prominently reported about the decision by one of the shareholders to quit and the news website maintained that this was indicative all wasn’t well at DFCU which only this year emerged number 2 in a market of more than 24 commercial banks. Many have since attributed DFCU’s ability to grow from number 7 to number 2 to the benefits it derived from the curious takeover of Sudhir Ruparelia’s Crane Bank aided by friendly officials at BoU. In its reporting of the events At DFCU, Nile Post corroborated such claims and carried a few other articles not exactly very courteous towards DFCU. All this angered Namuyimba who was being scrutinized at DFCU with many of her superiors wondering what she was head PR for if she couldn’t even prevail on guys (read Nile Post) she works with at the Kamwokya-based Media Plaza. On facing this scrutiny by DFCU bosses who insisted much more was expected of a lady of her experience, Rukushana Namuyimba drove to Kamwokya where she stormed the section where Nile Post operates from. She vigorously confronted one of the online editors sternly warning him. She ranted until she got tired and walked away.
AB’T DFCU SAGA;
Social media reports have persistently painted a worrisome picture at DFCU by alleging a number of things some of which have since been dismissed by industry pundits as untrue. William Sekabembe, a top executive who quit months ago for a higher paid slot in a Kenyan bank, has often been used as an example to illustrate chaos and hopelessness of the situation at DFCU. There are widespread fears that Sekabembe could lure many other employees, already disgruntled with unmet demands for higher pay, to follow him at the Kenyan bank. Several staffers have already quit citing a number of grievances including poor remuneration. Some have decried the staff appraisal policy as not being good enough. Even in rare cases where DFCU pays higher than the competition, there are concerns of delayed payment. Some have said an employee working for Shs8m at say Standard Chartered Bank might be better off than a colleague at DFCU officially earning Shs15m because in DFCU’s case it comes irregularly. There are also concerns that when disgruntled staff leave for greener pastures, they are seldom replaced. The workload is pushed to the remaining employees to shoulder without a proportionate increase in pay. Some have gone as far as speculating that the curses and bad prayers occasioned by Crane Bank founders too could be haunting DFCU which analysts like Andrew Mwenda and Nandala Mafabi have previously said was unfairly favored by BoU to ultimately take over Crane Bank. Rumors that influential employees from Kampala Road and Entebbe branches recently fled the country under very mysterious circumstances have only tensed up an already fragile situation. This anomalous situation DFCU finds itself in has naturally caused the CEO Juma Kissami (who started out his career as an accountant at UDB many years ago) to understandably come under a lot of pressure from shareholders. We at least spoke to two shareholders who confirmed having nervously rang Kissami seeking clarification whether all was well at DFCU. “He assures us its well but in my view I think much of this chaos relates to KCB that is determined to grow its market share in Uganda yet they don’t want the hassle of training their own employees. It’s costly and requires patience. They consider it expensive and they are determined to lure as many DFCU employees as they can because having emerged number 2 the thinking out there is that there is something DFCU employees are getting right,” said the shareholder on condition of anonymity. We also spoke to a veteran lawyer with a strong corporate background in the banking industry. The lawyer said the manner in which DFCU grew from number 7 to number 2 last year naturally attracted for them many enemies. “Naturally one would think it’s Sudhir who is after them which may not be true. There is a possibility they could become number 1 next year and if you are Stanbic, which for years has dominated the number one position, you have to work hard because you can no longer afford complacency. Number one comes with lots of benefits including being the first bank of call for agencies like World Bank and the economies of scale. It also inspires depositor confidence and you end up getting publicity without spending. So DFCU must know that there is no way you are going to scale to number one position in such a very competitive industry without your competitors fighting back,” said the lawyer. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755.
