As the founder and CEO of the Arise Group, one of the largest infrastructure investment platforms in Africa, Gagan Gupta has, in a decade, developed a portfolio of 18- plus large-scale infrastructure projects across Africa. Present in 12 African countries and employing over 6,200 people, building industrial and logistic ecosystems, sustainability is at the core of his mission and so is developing African talent. The Gabon special economic zone he built in 2021, was the first carbon-neutral industrial zone in Africa. here, he speaks about his key strategies for unlocking Africa’s future.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center" id="h-developing-africa-s-natural-resources">Developing Africa’s natural resources </h4>



For too long, Africa has been exporting its natural resources. The whole business model we built was around developing something sustainable based on the raw materials of each country and changing them forever. This continent has been exporting raw material for the last 400 years, and that is the only constant. Africa grapples with three big issues. First is unemployment. Second, you have a situation where the governments are not able to spend enough money on healthcare and education because they have a low GDP base. Third is the climate perspective. 



Everybody says we need to be looking at climate, but the continent produces [a large amount of ] the world’s cashew and sends it to Asia, where it gets transformed and goes to Europe and the U.S. So, you’re creating a massive carbon footprint for no reason. How I look at it is the continent needs long-term fixing, which will not hap- pen with donations or grants. It has to happen through fundamental change, which is sustainable and using the core strengths the countries have, and that is natural resources. 



How do you really look at transforming that and ensuring you build entire businesses around it? Therefore, what we did was look at each country’s strengths, train the youth, get them to transform [raw materials] and then export it. If you look at Gabon, we focused on timber, and in Benin, raw cashew. Instead of exporting raw, we add value and then export. Even cotton. The busi- ness model is around the sustainable transmission of the resources these countries have, which unlocks massive po- tential for the youth and creates a long-term future.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center" id="h-the-years-in-india-and-africa">The years in India and Africa</h4>



I was born in Alwar in Rajasthan. I studied in Chennai, and then did my chartered accountancy in Delhi. What I always wanted, even as a 16-year-old, was to create impact and change lives. My father used to be the CFO of a large ce- ment company, and would leave home for work at 5.30AM every day and worked hard… In the year 2000, I wanted to build an industrial zone in India, when working for Reckitt Benckiser. And then, I joined Olam – a very entrepreneurial company. I always believed in entrepreneurship and came to Africa. I had not heard about Gabon at the time, and had to look it up on the internet. It was in 2008 and I didn’t un- derstand how the countries in Africa were saying they were so poor and continued to export raw material. How can you be in a situation where you are saying you don’t have jobs and you are exporting, literally, your jobs away? And that’s how it all started. I worked with Olam for 12 years, and all of it in Gabon.



Gabon is a beautiful country, 88% of which is covered by dense green forest. We looked at it and said, ‘how can this country be having all this wood exported as raw, and at the same time the country is importing timber products from the outside’. We built the first carbon-neutral industrial zone in Africa here… Nobody could believe that this country will go from exporting logs to becoming the second-largest exporter of veneer globally. It was unimaginable, exporting to China, India, Vietnam… What really also got me living in Gabon was the people, always smiling and happy. For my kids, Gabon is their first home. I love the rain, the sun, the climate there. I spend about 20 days a month in Africa [from my base in Dubai].



<h4 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center">The transformation journey</h4>



The way I look at is, the bigger the problem you’re solv- ing, the bigger the business you’re creating. You are fixing a problem happening every day. And I believe this is the only way for Africa to progress. This is the only way you can make permanent change and create positive, long-term, sustain- able impact in the continent. Obviously, when you start, you will not be sure if it will work; there will be iterations and everything. That’s what we did. But once we did it, it became quite successful. And what will happen is that the other countries will come and say, ‘can you do it for us too?’



Understanding why it didn’t work [previously] and then fixing those points is really what will make it work… When we choose countries, we [are not in] the business of flag-hoisting. We want to go to the countries that want to take this journey with us, because transformation is not an easy job. The first thing we want to understand is if the gov- ernment is wanting to do this journey with us or not. Sec- ondly, do they have the raw material? Do they have neces- sary things for the industrial zone to be successful? Because, at the end of the day, industrialization cannot happen if you do not have the right ingredients to transform. In some cases, the raw material can even be energy. Maybe the country has a lot of energy, and you can make energy-heavy industry, or it can be talented manpower that the country boasts, and you can build something around that. So, identifying what is going to be a key input, that will be the differentiator, and what you can produce that you can export on a global, com- petitive scale. From our perspective, we are building ecosys- tems, end-to-end&#8230; Build it and people will come.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center">On African manpower</h4>



The youth of Africa is wanting to work hard, they’re avail- able, and want to make a difference. You just need to orient them in the right direction. It’s just that it’s a chicken and egg story. If you do not have industry, how will you skill them? And if you do not have skills, how will you build the industry? So, we go and build vocational training centers in partnerships before we start. And I think the only way to break some of these vicious cycles is to say, let me create it, and things will happen.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center">Thoughts on the DRC</h4>



I love the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). You can feel the energy at 5AM, you can feel the rush. The DRC is a massive market, and with the population [100 million] it has, we are building an industrial zone. I think the key challenge there is to solve for energy. Also, people who have not been to the DRC have very different images of it in their mind, so it’s about convincing people that the DRC is very safe for in- vestments, outside of mining. The government is quite com- mitted to the process. And we are looking to rehabilitate the railway that connects Matadi to Kinshasa.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center">Running and organizing marathons</h4>



I run over eight and a half kilometers every day from 5AM. That’s my adrenaline, my time of peace and problem-solv- ing. I have my routes, in Dubai, in Benin, in the DRC – where I run around the Corniche. For the last eight years, we have co-organized official marathons in Gabon for thousands.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center">Leadership lessons</h4>



You have to be a good human being. We all need to realize that we are just lucky where we are. The family that you were born into already decides so many things in your life. So, you have to be thankful you were born in a place that could afford your education, your food, because there are so many people in the world who don’t know today what they will eat. We can claim we are smart, but I don’t think so, I think in the end, it’s about things falling in place and about being human. I don’t look at work as work. I have fun. I do it because I love it.

Gagan Gupta Image supplied

Gabon To Africa – ‘Build It And People Will Come’

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-growth-outlook-for-africa">Growth outlook for Africa</h2>



If you [look at] macroeconomics, it’s no longer one or two countries driving the continent’s growth. That versatility has started to come through, which they didn’t have earlier. The continent is currently growing at about 3.5% and that will go up&#8230; The governments in Africa realize the economies have to transform into digital economies, and there’s a tectonic shift taking place [in sectors] from manufacturing to services. The continent [will continue to] leapfrog into new tech, not just in payments; it will do well in tourism too, and the SME sector.



[Besides talk on] inclusion, I think access is also most important. So, if I get included, what access do I have to funding, better services, convenience and affordable products? Mobile money is big in Africa, but if you really look at the core – and I don’t think the continent is fully covered in terms of internet and mobile penetration – the per capita cost of providing these services in Africa is higher than the rest of the world. I think there are too many closed loop ecosystems that exist in Africa. You need to have open borders and open economies. And the scale will never happen in a single country. The scale can happen, and that’s why the versatility of having 10 countries have that growth rate is far more exciting than having one country that gives you double the growth rate. I feel the reason mobile phones became cheaper is when telcos (telecom companies) became interoperable between themselves, and that’s a huge learning. But I don’t see that being played out [across] the continent. I think creating broader ecosystems is the way to go.



The tourism sector will do well, and that’s not just for African tourists within the continent, it’s also for international tourists to come through. The one thing the pandemic taught us is people now value experiences more than [just] the physicality of experiences. Africa can give you that. But to do that, if you are sitting in Iceland and want to go to Kenya, how do you plan something that is customized for you? Digitization will help if you’re part of an included economy.


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Agriculture is also going to be very big. Mastercard’s Farm Pass app is a solution that was born in Africa and exported to the rest of the world, including to India. Also significant is the work we do in education and using crowdfunding to actually get children educated.



Mastercard has been operating in Africa for almost 50 years, and now has 13 offices across the continent.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-consumer-of-the-future">The consumer of the future</h2>



The consumer of the future is every single person. You almost have to go back to classic marketing 101, that the best marketing campaign is customized or tailored to an individual. When you look at your phone, you feel you’re almost there with your customization, but I don’t think you’re fully there. I feel the whole world will turn on its head, and the consumer will become king or queen. Open, enabling ecosystems that allow people to participate fairly is when innovation comes and you can empower everybody. The other dramatic thing for you to think through is that so many companies and industries are putting billions of dollars into digitization, but look at what they’re creating. They say ‘if you come into my digital environment, I’ll give you the best possible digital experience’. But you know what? I’m not just a consumer of a single firm. I am a consumer of the grocery store down the corner. I’m a consumer of an airline. I’m a consumer of a hotel. I’m a consumer of tea, coffee. I am a consumer of the bank. Are you going to make me go into 62 different environments? I feel that’s where it will change. You will now start to have a consumer who will have a digital interface, and then basically say, ‘I need coffee and you interface with me with your APIs, and it’s not me interfacing with you’. I know this sounds far-fetched, but I see a world like that. That’s disruption, that’s power, that’s inclusion.



Every industry will want to come to you and want your business. I think the consumer of tomorrow will not classically be segmented as affluent, super-affluent, middle income etc. It’s down to every single segment, and it’s customized up to it. I think consumers will have more power than ever before. That’s true empowerment. And the whole ecosystem helps them deliver that. By the way, we are only talking about this from the consumer side. I see that on the government side as well. In the end, I’m a citizen, and governments have to give me better services. And I can see how that can come through. I consume utilities, I can see how utility companies come to me, and so on. So, the world of tomorrow is really about the consumers and how they will be at the center of how things are made for them, customized perfectly to what they want.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-uptake-of-new-technologies-and-innovations-by-various-african-governments">Uptake of new technologies and innovations by various African governments</h2>



The good news is that pretty much every government official, minister or policymaker understands the importance of digitization and financial inclusion. They get it. The question then is, how well-versed are they about the world of today versus the world of tomorrow? If you’re making policies for today, then you’re going to miss out on the future. I’m not saying that’s an issue, but that’s an area that requires a little more embellishment, in terms of knowledge structure, and thinking through the implications for the wider ecosystem in the economy. I do agree that governments have to create digital infrastructure but my question is if that’s the only way, or can you do this in a partnership? If not in partnership, you start to create single points of failures as well, especially with all of the cyber security [issues] etc. But by and large, governments are amiable to having the dialogue.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-collaboration-with-fintechs">Collaboration with fintechs</h2>



Earlier this year, we signed a multi-market agreement with MTN Group Fintech that will set in motion a new era of collaboration to connect millions of people and small businesses across Africa with digital tools such as virtual cards, to transact through secure mobile payments, expanding access to the benefits of the cashless digital economy.



What we have is partnerships on the one side with fintechs. Mastercard Start Path supports and invests in several African fintech companies (such as Paycode, Ukheshe and Karri) to scale and grow. [All of this] allows us to play in different parts of the value chain. This also is testimony to the way we work. We are about partnerships and enabling ecosystems, because we sometimes don’t want to do everything ourselves; we see somebody else do it, and are like, ‘oh, this person does this stuff very well’, so, it becomes a mini ecosystem [through] that partnership model. That’s our DNA.



I think the intent is no longer an issue. The question is, how do you do it at scale and at an economics that makes sense. I think that’s the part where most people are struggling. And that’s why it requires a new approach to how you do it. And it has to be sustainable.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-as-a-forecaster-view-of-the-future">As a forecaster, view of the future</h2>



I am very privileged to get access to information and the people I talk to… But if you were exposed to all of that, you would probably make similar predictions, walking the talk every day. It’s just as simple as that. As you get more experienced, you also start to think differently about the world of the future and what role you want to play. Nobody will ever remember you for the seniormost rank you had in a corporate, people remember you for how you enable other people, ecosystems, and lay foundations for the growth for others.



I actually do feel that in our lifetime, our mortality rate will improve by at least 15 years. I see the smartest people will proactively reinvent themselves [for that]. The way you spend your time and how you create value will be different. This will be a very big trend.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-growth-markets-in-africa">Big growth markets in Africa</h2>



The space of payments and finance is obviously big. The tourism industry is going to be very big in the future, because, after the pandemic, a lot of people realize life’s not just about the material things, it’s about being human, it’s about the experiences we have. Africa is unspoiled, it has nature, and that’s what people want to connect with. The third sector is going to be agriculture, with Africa’s large land banks. There is so much opportunity to actually have better efficiency of crop production and the supply chain to the rest of the world.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-makes-a-standout-leader">What makes a standout leader</h2>



You have to be really results-oriented, analytical and in tune with your business environment. But what makes a really good business leader and good person is somebody who knows to balance their heart and mind. Somebody recently told me that the mind is a humble servant of the heart and not the other way around. And it was a really profound statement for me, but if I really look back and think of how great decisions get taken, it’s not the mind. It’s actually when you make your mind do what your heart really thinks is the right thing to do.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-your-personal-leadership-style">Your personal leadership style</h2>



I am results-oriented, so my style is [reaching] a desired outcome which is for the greater good, and it doesn’t always mean economic profit. Then you start thinking about your team, business environment, adaptability, flexibility… And I would add one other thing – resilience. A lot of times, it’s hard out there, and I think being resilient is something that has actually stood by me in good times and bad times.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-building-an-entrepreneurial-mindset">Building an entrepreneurial mindset</h2>



It’s a bit of hard work and a little bit of luck, and experience matters. As you get more information, your mind starts to process the complexity of all of that. You look at the business environment, you start to look for trends and changes around that. And then you start to create an informal framework in your head that starts to analyze these things. It’s a little hard in the beginning, but over the years, that comes very naturally, because you’ve started to get the subtleties and insights in even simple sentences. And that shows you what the world needs, whether it’s a consumer or a customer or the business environment. And I think that is what gets you to an entrepreneurial mindset. The second thing is openness to change, openness to new things, and the ability to clench your teeth and hunker down when the going is really tough, and having the mental will to power through that time, because that’s what great entrepreneurs do.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-technology-to-come-that-you-re-most-excited-about">The technology to come that you’re most excited about</h2>



I don’t know whether I’m excited about another gadget or another technology. What I’m excited about is how ecosystems are being built and that what we need as an enabling layer is finally coming together. I was joking with somebody the other day about the Internet of Things from five years ago. Nobody talks about that now. They talk about generative AI. What I’m excited about is I actually feel we now have the technology enablement that will allow all of these things to become bigger. In other words, there will be even more innovation, and probably a new gadget will come, or a new technology will come, but what I’m excited about today is the fact that we actually have the infrastructure that will allow for all of these things to take place. Because earlier, this was conceptual. Today, this can become a reality.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-plans-for-the-next-five-years">Plans for the next five years…</h2>



I think [I will be] reinventing myself to create foundations and being involved with how the future looks. Retirement is a relative term. I have taken a personal pledge to help 100 million SMEs and 500 million people, but I don’t want to do this as a CSR exercise. I want to actually create a model that allows that. I also have a vision where even if you’re an entrepreneur and creating immense wealth, that wealth has to be shared in different countries, wherever you operate. I don’t have precise plans for each of them, but broadly, [I know] how that will work.



The answer is, [my plans] will be in AI for sure. I’ve started to kind of think about those things: it’s definitely about helping governments and industries who are creating digital infrastructure in a more inclusive way; about helping people create open ecosystems, in other words, creating foundations that allow for betterment. And lastly, giving back, and being available to people for pro bono work. I don’t think there’s a paucity of capital. I think the issue is, how do you take that quality capital and deploy it in the best possible way? I’m grateful and privileged for what Mastercard has given me, but I am taking that knowledge and helping SMEs, and [creating] more equitable systems and better convenience for citizens. I see all of that in the future.

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On The Payments Ecosystem And Africa: ‘That’s Disruption, That’s Power, That’s Inclusion’

With a diverse 20-year career in hospitality across multiple geographies including Africa, Amir Golbarg can tell you how locations you never knew existed can lend to rapturous storytelling, and he has many a tale to tell on the continent.



We are in a sleek boardroom with glass windows overlooking gleaming towers at the Dubai International Financial Centre; the searing August sun in Dubai beams on, never once letting you forget the vagaries of a Middle Eastern summer.



Yet, there is a force in this room, in this moment, who takes you at once to the snowy swathes of Switzerland, to the balmy beaches of Thailand and the airy islands of Bob Dylan’s Mozambique. It’s a wandering, itinerant few moments actually, that make up the first 10 minutes of a conversation with a man who is a hotelier but with a journey that has graced most corners of the map.



Originally from Iran, but now a Danish national, Amir Golbarg heads up the Middle East, Africa and India region for the Thailandbased Minor Hotels group. As Senior Vice President, he also oversees the Indian Ocean islands of the Seychelles and Mauritius. The geographical narrative does not end there.



His Persian family has been involved in politics for generations, he says. Golbarg thought that would be his calling too, but eventually, as he adds, he was “the one who broke free”.



“I realized early on, that ultimately, what I wanted to achieve was bigger,” says Golbarg, 41 now, who took the advice of an uncle and left for the cool climes of Switzerland to study hospitality management.



“I love dealing with people… and hospitality is in our culture, in our nature, hospitality is the spirit of serving… I was a Persian living across Europe. So being a nomad was kind of natural to me. I felt like the world is my oyster. The one thing my uncle taught me was that hospitality is the one industry where you can be, from the North Pole to the South Pole, as there’s always some kind of guest house or accommodation [serving people].”



A stint in the United States followed, and in 2008, Golbarg moved to Dubai, just before the unceremonious unraveling of the global financial crisis. The city was still – literally – on its way up with a steely resolve, and there were enough hotel projects to keep everyone busy.



“I got a taste of the glitter, the glamor and the glory,” says Golbarg fondly of a city he now calls home, despite his life on the road. When he first arrived, he was with the Jumeirah hotel group and subsequently moved on assignment to the Maldives.



In 2012, he joined Minor Hotels, part of Minor International that’s listed on the Thailand stock exchange.



“What drew me to Minor is it’s not just a hotel company, it’s an entrepreneurs’ company, we are all entrepreneurs in this space. Bill Heinecke, the founder-chairman, built it from the ground up, based in Thailand, and they are one of the biggest operators and owners of hotels, retail and F&amp;B in Southeast Asia.”



Minor Hotels’ portfolio currently totals 558 hotels in 58 countries and includes the Anantara and Avani brands, among many others. Golbarg oversees a total of 38 properties in operation across 10 countries and six brands, in addition to driving the development of the strong pipeline of properties within the regions across multiple brands.



“We’re not your typical hotel company, he says. “We’re not just a brand that puts flags on buildings.”



Back in the Middle East, Golbarg’s journey evolved into expanding the company’s footprint, also going into Africa, focusing on India and “really broadening the context”.



Wearing multiple hats, he now also homes in on his previous experience working on asset management, investments, mergers and acquisitions, and therefore, looking at hospitality from all those perspectives.



“We run a full-360 geography of a business. And that’s the beauty of hospitality. You touch so many lives. You touch so many industries, from agriculture to trade. The whole ecosystem of hospitality is so vast, and we like to touch every one of them. That’s what makes Minor unique. We look at it not just as a hotel and filling beds, but as a business that can change lives and economies… Because if you build the right economy, that becomes sustainable to build everything else.”



Presence in the UAE



In Dubai, over the last two years, the company launched its upscale four-star Avani property, the NH Collection brand and the luxury Anantara on The Palm Jumeirah.



“Our offerings here go from the extended-stay suites all the way to luxury. We have pretty much most of the brands covered in Dubai.”



Golbarg heaps lavish praise on the pro-business, pro-progress culture of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The emirate of Dubai itself attracted over 17 million international tourists in 2023. The figures for this year are higher. “The UAE has the highest number of our brands of any destination globally,” he says.



Abu Dhabi, the country’s capital city, is also home to Minor’s Greek-inspired, 22-key, boutique, “adults’ only” Anantara Santorini retreat, which opened this year.



“What I respect about the UAE is they take everyone on board, they involve all parties. And that, for me, is a big element, which I always encourage other governments to do. Dubai Tourism has worked with us hand-in-hand on everything that they roll out. I always say, in the best sense of the word, that they use us, which they should do. Every government should use us. Of course, we have the Rolodex, we have the loyalty platforms, we have the international know-how and exposure, and we have a ton to give back, because, ultimately, we’re on the same boat. If you bring the airline, the travel, the hotels and the ministry, together, we can’t go wrong,” says Golbarg.



There are more upcoming or new projects for Minor Hotels globally. “We’re looking at a property in Morocco. At the moment, suddenly, the demand has risen. There’s a big one coming up in Jaipur in Q4 that has already been booked up for weddings… We’re also invested heavily in Thailand, it’s our mothership.”



African odyssey



Golbarg’s portfolio also takes him frequently into the African continent; the group has an office in Johannesburg, South Africa. “Our journey in sub-Saharan Africa started with purely acquisitions. We started with a joint venture in 2012, with a lodge brand called Elewana. We have 16 lodges, primarily across East Africa; in Tanzania and Kenya.”



The company also has an Avani hotel in landlocked Lesotho in southern Africa. “It’s the steadiest performer in our portfolio,” says Golbarg. “We’re the Burj Al Arab of Lesotho. What we have is doing fantastically well.”



The story in Botswana and Namibia is no different. And his own personal favorite haven in Africa? The Anantara in Medjumbe in Mozambique.



“It’s the most untapped part of the Indian Ocean; the coral reef is stunning.” Yet another location, the barrier island of Bazaruto in Mozambique – known for its prawns and picture-perfect beaches – comes with its own special tale.



“The history we have there is actually a funny story. Part of our acquisition was a small island called Santa Carolina, which was where [American singer-songwriter] Bob Dylan’s famous song, Mozambique, was [created]. The piano he used for the song was there. We brought it along to the Bazaruto property, and we have preserved it. This location was the place-to-be back in the 1960s and 1970s; the hotspot everybody would come to in Mozambique,” says Golbarg.



Coming up in South Africa, in the business district of Sandton, in Johannesburg, is a NH Collection hotel, a fully-renovated and refurbished version of the hitherto Hilton property. It will be Minor’s first hotel in Johannesburg.



“We’re looking to expand in Africa. I think for us, what is interesting now is we want to look at the key hubs, so Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi etc. But we’re seeing a major interest now in the smaller, unique Anantara offerings, those that are resort-style. There’s a demand in that space. We have our first tented camp opening early next year in a place called Kafue, which is a beautiful, unexplored area in Zambia&#8230; we’re also looking at potentially bringing the Anantara brand to Rwanda.”



Golbarg adds that he may be treading with caution in Africa’s regulatory environment but it has been “high risk, high reward”.



Statista predicts the revenue from Africa’s hospitality market by 2027 to be about $14 billion. Is it believable?



“You know, around 64% of our total income for the regions [I oversee] comes out of Africa,” Golbarg attests.



Conservation and green energy



Among other priorities, conservation is also a big area of focus for Minor. “It has been a part of our DNA. We started our journey with elephants in Thailand; we invested in a major development to support the mahouts and elephants in the Golden Triangle. And we own the assets there. And it really helped give a second life to these animals.”



Renewable energy is another big drawcard, including Minor’s investments in hydro-power and solar farms.



“Sustainability is bigger than just being plastic-free, and my commitment is that in Africa, everything we build and everything we acquire has to be from the continent. There’s nothing worse than coming to a hotel, and the shampoo and dispensers etc are from somewhere else. So, the Anantara brand, historically, we always say it’s indigenous, sustainable luxury. Even if you look at our Jaipur property in India, I was adamant that all the stones and art we use are from Rajasthan.”



And his take on the interface of new technology such as artificial intelligence?



“AI is a great tool to minimize your backoffice tasks, but it cannot replace your front-office. Because as much as everybody talks about contactless solutions and personal check-ins, guests don’t actually want that. They still need the human interface,” he says.



As trends go, Golbarg speaks about the group’s increased investments in branded residences, resort-style living and “experiential luxury”.



“People associate Africa with certain things. The goal for us is to make sure that we extend that so it does not become just a ‘bucket list’ item, but a journey of a lifetime. Because Africa shouldn’t be a ‘bucket list’, it’s not enough, there’s more than just a bucket to fill!”

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CEO Strategies: The International Hotelier With A Bob Dylan Story In Mozambique

Sunil Kaushal, the new Co-Head for Corporate and Investment Banking at Standard Chartered, has been with the group since 1998 and in the banking business for the last 36 years. In a chat with us in February this year, when he was Regional CEO for Africa and the Middle East, he talked about the bank’s strategies in the emerging markets of Africa, where he has been traveling to for the last two decades. Seated on Ghanaian-inspired sofas in his Dubai office – boasting a full view of the iconic Museum of the Future and the walls adorned with art from Africa – he also spoke about his simple, straightforward leadership style and what drives him to wake up at 4AM every day. Excerpts from the interview:



Focus on Africa including launching digital banks across nine markets 



Africa has been one of our most important markets in terms of differentiation. We consider our presence there to be very strategic and important. We are in all of Asia; the only bank in every ASEAN market&#8230; But when you talk about Africa, each country is different in its own way. Africa is not without challenges but it has been very resilient as well. I do believe that setbacks and a host of political as well as governance issues have resulted in Africa not performing to its potential, but hopefully, in the coming years, that will change… There’s huge potential in terms of demographics, infrastructure and technology; many markets have leapfrogged.



We remain very constructive on Africa, but are also conscious about the challenges there and have navigated them, because we’ve made those risk calls way ahead of the actual events happening. We repositioned our business eight to 10 years ago on the retail side towards digital, [when] there was no rush to get it done, but we made that call early on, and took some difficult decisions. And the last seven to eight years, for every award for digital banking across every category, Standard Chartered has stood out. Africa is a very dynamic market; it requires you to have a good feel for the pulse on the ground. Big changes are happening but the continent needs a lot more in the years to come, and that’s where the fantastic opportunity is.



On the growing Middle East-Africa ties



Not many people are aware that the Middle East has been investing in Africa in a pretty significant way; from investments in mines to ports to logistics. Basically, you step back and look at what’s happening is that Africa is a big market and this part of the world (the Middle East) has got the capital, and of course, it produces energy, petroleum and petroleum products. And there’s a market there waiting to be tapped, and they’re creating their linkages. We work with clients here and one of the topics in all our meetings with the government is around access into Africa, and there are not many banks that will provide that. So it is broad-based, it is capital being invested, it is products being sold, it is assets that are being acquired. So, there’s a whole area of activity taking place and it’s only going to increase, as they get a better understanding of the continent, and you get comfortable with doing business on the continent. We have to remember that the perceived risk of Africa is much higher than the actual risk and you can only appreciate that when you’re on the ground.



Promoting young entrepreneurs



I don’t think there’s any magic formula to it. We need to support the creation of business opportunities in the economy itself. If you really develop the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement, there will be more trade, more manufacturing, more entrepreneurs; if you invest in digitization, digital platforms themselves will create self-employment opportunities for entrepreneurs to come up with new, innovative ways of selling. So, I think it’s very important to create the enabling environment. Of course, the provision of finance is very important. And again, that gets allocated and becomes available if you have the right institutions, the right governance frameworks, the ability to lend in a transparent way or in an informed way, and get your money back when it’s due. So, finance is very important as well in terms of being one of the building blocks to really promote entrepreneurship. We try to do our bit through the Futuremakers Program, which was my focus, for education, employability and creating opportunities. We worked with various institutions to incubate firms, provide them small amounts of finance, hand-hold them in terms of how they manage businesses, governance, etc. We are doing our bit, but there’s lots to be done. And I think it’s a broader ecosystem that you create, which will then ensure that businesses take advantage of that.



Mentoring young people within the organization



We have started creating a very structured way of building the talent pipeline at various levels. We have a leadership program to mentor and interact with our talent in Africa and the Middle East. The idea is that they get opportunities to work on different projects. They have an opportunity to interact with senior regional management teams, and the progress is tracked based on performance and on the leadership skills in the sectors we serve. It’s a formal program, and we’re very proud about it, and now, it’s adopted globally. And then we have another program that’s more targeted with a smaller cohort, which is building a pipeline for very senior roles. And they are then addressed by the global management team, which I am also part of, and tracked very closely in terms of opportunities. Both cohorts would be in the running whenever big opportunities come on.



Perspectives on sustainability and climate change



The bank is deeply engaged. And I generally feel that in all forms of financing we do, sustainability is going to play a big part and link to climate change. But it’s broader than just climate change transition. It’s adaptation. And ESG investing. It is around how we manage in a way that our portfolios are well-protected. So, we’ve made various commitments around the financing. We have created a new business line out of it, and I think it’s going to be the most exciting, which is sustainable finance. It is an opportunity for us to really differentiate ourselves because we have started early. And we invest a lot in our people, in our products, and the accolades we receive are a testament that we are doing extremely well.



Personal leadership style 



It’s more about ensuring that when you have a strategy in place, execution becomes very important. And that comes through straightforward, simple communication and a sharp focus on delivery. That’s very important. Otherwise, I find you waste a lot of time in conversations without action. My own leadership style would be to really get the best out of people by engaging them and getting the buy-in on a common purpose. Otherwise, you sort of lose them. You can have very fancy aspirations, but if your team is not aligned or doesn’t buy in, it’s going to be extremely difficult. So, invest time to really get the alignment. Once you do, you need to focus on delivery. If you’re firm and fair, people generally see it and deliver their best. So, mine is a pretty straightforward, simple, no-nonsense style.



My approach always has been, ‘don’t come up with problems’, because that’s the easiest way – to outsource your problems to your boss, and I have zero time for that. If you come with a problem, also come with a solution. If you don’t have the solution, don’t come with the problem. So, it forces people to think two steps ahead. It’s not that I don’t like to hear what the problems are, but then come up and say, ‘listen, if this is a problem, let’s try and do it this way, and I think it will work’. To me, that’s a more intelligent conversation. It’s my job then to clear the blockages and get them the resources to make that happen. I’m not expecting every junior person to have access to all the resources, but at least come up with ideas and become more stimulating. People appreciate that.



On the entrepreneurial mindset



That’s extremely important, but you also have to be nimble enough. You should recognize that if a certain thing is not working, even if you’re invested in it, you should have the ability to move on and be vulnerable enough to do that than say, ‘no, I’ll persist, and I’ll persist’. It does not mean you’re not tenacious. You have to be tenacious, but if you realize that you have made a mistake, you should have the humility to accept it and then move on and change course. [One of the] big things that kill people at top positions is ego. Particularly in this region, where things keep changing so dynamically, make a call. You get your best shot. If you realize you made a mistake, change course.



Secret to staying the course



Endurance! There is no shortcut to success. My advice to all youngsters is, first of all, ask yourself, ‘what are you trying to really achieve, and are you really good at it?’ And then, ‘are you investing enough on a daily basis to master it?’ Because if you’re saying ‘I’m going to be the number one in payments or cyber or digital’, then invest every day and try to be the best at it. Because this is something which builds on, it has the flywheel effect, once you’ve accumulated the knowledge base.



Growing up in Mumbai



My father was an engineer and from a family of doctors, so, when I took up finance, I was told that there’s nobody in the family who can help me as there was no one in finance. From my early teens, I decided I wanted to be a banker, I had no other desire. My father worked for a steel company, and we lived in this community close to the steel factory, and I used to visit his office, in town at Nariman Point, and I used to see all these fancy banks, you know, people in suits and ties. They dealt with money and I said, ‘okay, what do I need to do to deal with money?’ So, I learned finance. My very first job was at American Express in Mumbai and then I went to New York. But I was ambitious to learn about every facet of banking: treasury markets, corporate banking, retail banking&#8230;



Anecdotes on your first job



I used to dress up very well, always in dark blue. Those days, you had to travel in the Mumbai local train [to get to work], so I would fold my jacket and put it in my briefcase, and wore it at work. I did that for a year or so before getting my own first car, a Premier Padmini, which I loved.



Coming to the Middle East in 1998



That’s when the entire Sheikh Zayed Road stretch was developing. There was nothing but sand, and they said, ‘we’re going to have 700 buildings’. Dubai is a phenomenal story, [because of ] the leadership and there are so many lessons to learn from it. I am a big fan of Dubai.



Thoughts when you wake up everyday



That I want to make a difference. The one thing I can do sitting at the top is clear the blockages. And I say it with all sincerity. Many a time, people don’t tell you the full picture, so, you kind of probe them, or try to use your connections to figure out what’s blocking things. Because this is a great bank. It has a great history and massive potential. We are in the world’s most dynamic market. We are a super connector of capital, trade, etc. Not many banks can claim to have that, so how do you really clear the blockages? What frustrates me sometimes is if you’re not getting things done quickly.



Idea of relaxation



I play golf. I’m a very relaxed person. I sleep at 9.30PM and get up at four o’clock. I am able to switch off every day as you should. I love to go for holidays in Africa. I’ve traveled to South Africa many times but would love to do Serengeti, Masai Mara and Victoria Falls.

Sunil Kaushal (Image by Priscilla Selhorst)

CEO Strategies: The No-Nonsense Global Banker On His Straightforward Leadership Style

Leadership lessons from Imtiaz Patel, the man who began by teaching accountancy and playing cricket in apartheid South Africa, going on to help transform the country’s sports and entertainment landscape. 



It was 1988, the year London’s Wembley Stadium beamed to the world a jam-packed pop music concert in tribute to Nelson Mandela on his 70th birthday.



Far away, in apartheid South Africa, the collective global cry to free incarcerated revolutionary activist Mandela echoed. The first stirrings of change could also be seen in the country’s cricket grounds, signifying the potential of sport to influence social transformation.



South Africa was inching tantalizingly close to getting back to international cricket (after a global boycott of apartheid sport for over three decades), and in the townships, young Black children were taking to the game with new zeal.



Imtiaz Patel was a lanky 24-year-old at the time, from small town Schweizer-Reneke in the country’s North West province, joining the cricket development program to fully commit to pursuing the sport.



“It was at the height of a very passionate, positively-emotive time. The cricket development program [founded by South African cricketer Ali Bacher] was taking cricket to the townships, and we were all talking unification, we were all making a difference to people’s lives, and building facilities. We were so passionate, those were dreamy times,” recalls Patel, his eyes sparkling at the thought, on a warm afternoon in June as we sit in the larney mezzanine floor lounge of the Grosvenor House hotel where he stays in Dubai.



It’s a million miles from those times before democracy in South Africa, but Patel, who helmed pan-African video entertainment business MultiChoice in various capacities for almost a quarter of a century, paints the picture like it was yesterday, full of hope, full of excitement for what was to come, a future that included him.



“I ran the cricket program in Gauteng, which included all the townships such as Alexandra and Soweto; they devolved the program to the provincial units, so I worked for Gauteng cricket,” he says.



In the “deep, dark days” of apartheid, 300kms from Johannesburg in his hometown, where his grandfather had started a business in the 1930s, Patel had a conservative upbringing but “conscious” of the social misgivings of the time, and the family loved cricket.



“In many ways, your experiences in your formative years shape you,” he states. The family owned a store in a “beautiful rock building” in the center of Schweizer-Reneke, and his grandfather showed the young Patel his ledgers and books.



“He always talked about how, during the Great Depression, he helped farmers get goods and stuff from him, and they only paid him three to four years later; and these were White, Afrikaans customers,” says Patel.



“My grandfather used to be sent a train ticket in the 1930s by the Kohinoor Club in Johannesburg. He would travel all night on a Friday by train, play cricket on the weekend, and return home Sunday night. And my father played for non- White South Africa… Cricket was in our blood, in our family, in our history. But because I grew up in this little town with Indian families, our school was a shop, because the community had to support the school.” They couldn’t attend a White Afrikaans school because of the segregating structures of apartheid. “We were 20 kids in school. Each desk was a class; the desk next door was another class; the desk next to that was another class. And there was one teacher teach- ing four classes in one go.”



Sometimes, on Saturday afternoons, Patel would venture with his father to watch a game of rugby or tennis but had to sit outside the fence, or inside the car. “I used to wonder, ‘but why can’t I play with you [White people]?’ I never got bitter, but I said, ‘hold on, you were in our business this morning as our customers, but I can’t play tennis with you’? I think that’s where one learned the ability to hold contradictory thoughts, because there’s this contradiction of ‘you love your customers, but they are also representative of an oppressor’, and you can’t mix with them. It was a very difficult concept. And then, because it was a small town, I spent many hours alone. Solitude was an interesting thing…



“When I played a higher level of cricket in Gauteng, I just took a view that you can’t be bitter, because, where do you go with bitterness? I felt, in a sense, a bit sorry even for the people who were privileged. I felt they had this view naively, so, I think in everybody’s heart, there’s some goodness.”



Patel went to high school in Kimberley in the Northern Cape province where he roughed it out until a stint at Wits University in Johannesburg.



In 1987, raising his own funds and on his own steam, he traveled to play cricket in England, the first time with White South Africans, many of who he subsequently became good friends with.



“I realized early in life that there were too many barriers between us, that systems were creating walls and the walls created problems that didn’t allow people to connect, to see each other as human beings.”



He decided to teach accounting to students in Soweto for three years, which is when he also met the man who had “a remarkable in- fluence” in his life, a mathematician and headmaster at Wits named TW Kambule. Patel taught accounting in the morning, was a cricket coach in the afternoons, and in the evenings, would sell broken biscuits out of the boot of his Volkswagen Citi Golf hatchback. He soon took up the role as Director of Professional Cricket un- der the United Cricket Board of South Africa (now Cricket South Africa), guided and mentored by Bacher, where he stayed two years. It was a heady time for South African cricket and one of the companies Patel dealt with commercially in the late 1990s was South African sports broadcaster SuperSport. This was going to chart the next 25 years of his life.



“I didn’t want to die thinking the only thing I knew was cricket; I had an interest in business. So, when I got [a job] offer from SuperSport, I accepted. Frankly, in terms of position and title, I was going backwards, but I felt I wanted to go and learn, and it was a much bigger organization. It was a leap of faith,” says Patel. “Ali Bacher was so angry he didn’t speak to me for two years because he was disap- pointed, as he had thought his protege would take over from him.”



A new South Africa was calling. “Because the country had just come out of apartheid, every organization was White. I felt like, ‘we can’t be having walls’. So, I had no problem joining SuperSport (owned by Naspers), even though my friends attacked me heavily for joining a White organization (at the time).”



In 2003, Bacher invited him to the final of the Cricket World Cup for coffee, shook hands and made peace. “He said to me he was just very angry because he saw me as the anointed successor, and I left.”



In 2005, Patel became the CEO of SuperSport South Africa and in 2007, the CEO of SuperSport International. A year later, he was headhunted to replace Malcolm Speed as CEO of the International Cricket Council (ICC).



“In fact, the interviews for that were here, in this hotel [Grosvenor House in Dubai], believe it or not, how is that for a coincidence?” laughs Patel. “I remember this because the interview process took so long… [and] my heart told me this wasn’t the right thing. So again, I did a crazy thing, I turned it down, which surprised many, and I stayed with SuperSport.



“It was hard to say no to the ICC offer, because it was a very high- profile position, you fly first-class and would be mixing with kings and queens, but I’m grateful I said no. There’s always a guiding light.” At this point, Patel relates his memorable encounter with Naspers’ chief Koos Bekker. “I flew to Cape Town to meet Koos, who was my ultimate boss, to tell him that ‘I’m considering the ICC appointment’. Soon after I landed, my wife called and said ‘by the way, they’ve announced the ICC appointment, it’s all over the wires’. I was supremely embarrassed to go see Koos, because I was going to tell him, and it had already been announced. I was very disappointed, but I was honest to him and said ‘I came here be- cause my wife and I were thinking about a new life, I have a passionfor cricket, as you know, this is a very big thing, it’s a dream etc, and my problem is, they’ve announced it’.



“But you know, there’s a very important lesson in this. I think smaller people like myself would have been very angry and said, ‘you’ve gone behind our back’, but Koos was understanding and supportive. He didn’t want me to go, and said ‘take your time, I’m not angry with you’…



“I am very grateful for the people around me and the big leaders like him I learned a lot from.” Patel stayed with the group and in 2010, became the Group CEO of Multichoice South Africa; in 2015, the Group CEO of Naspers Video Entertainment; and in 2019, became Chairman of Multichoice Group. During his innings at SuperSport, he secured the rights to numerous sporting properties, including the English Premier League and UEFA Champions League. After pioneering cricket’s Twenty/20 format in South Africa, he went on to conclude the transformative broadcast deal with South Africa’s Premier Soccer League (PSL) that entrenched DStv in the mass market in South Africa. They had a partner in Dr Irvin Khoza, the head of PSL, who was steadfast in his belief the partnership would work.



“I had the support of our board and our business, and then the fact that we fundamentally knew that this was for the greater good, that everybody would benefit, economically, the players, the referees, the facilities, the clubs, and today, it’s a machine. It’s in the top leagues in the world. So, I think we transformed local football, and that vision and that conviction allowed us to continue.



“The late Essop Pahad, who was a minister in the presidency, too had a strong conviction about the national imperative that foot- ball must be available to the masses. He guided us, but was also tough on us. We had many meetings at the Presidential guest house in Pretoria on Sunday afternoons. He took no prisoners, and when you were out of line, he let you know; he was such a formidable personality.”



Currently an advisor for MultiChoice, among other things, including his role as the Chairman of the South African Business Council in Dubai, Patel is also the Chairman of Moment, a fintech company aiming to revolutionize Africa’s payments landscape; a collaborative effort of MultiChoice, Rapyd, and General Catalyst. It’s a whole different ball game but Patel is getting into the swing of things.



“First of all, the philosophy is not retirement, there is no such thing as retirement. I have a learning mindset. I want to spend a lot of time with young people, and this will keep me busy. You learn, you earn, and you return.” Although he is on an Emirates flight to South Africa every six weeks – “my heart is in Africa” – he is all praise for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which he also calls home. “How many countries in the world have achieved what the UAE has in such a short space of time? They have created belief and a level of trust and credibility that is remarkable.” For a 60-year-old who has a lifetime of anecdotes to recall of his meetings with some of the world’s greatest sportsmen, there are newer vistas ahead. “There isn’t an end game. You can never say you have made it,” says Patel. 



“I have been fortunate to have had luck, God’s grace and people who believed in me and gave me op- portunities. And it’s circular; the only way you can thank them is to do the same for others. It’s a flywheel of positivity and a really powerful thing.”

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CEO Strategies: 60 Not Out – The South African Game-Changer In Business

We met Africa’s largest lender in one of the world’s most dynamic financial markets. In Dubai in June, we spoke with the Johannesburg-based Kenny Fihla, the Chief Executive Of Corporate and Investment Banking at Standard Bank, a 160-year-old institution with a footprint covering 20 African countries.



Kenny Fihla, the Chief Executive of Corporate and Investment Banking at Standard Bank, talks about renewable energy, sustainability-linked financing solutions, impacting emerging markets, and the lessons that can be replicated across the continent. More in this insightful interview with the man who started his career in the trade union movement in the 1980s in South Africa, and has been with the bank for over 18 years.



Q. In your role at Standard Bank, you have spearheaded several transformative initiatives, and have a passion for climate change and are also involved in leading renewable energy projects. With its energy deficit and energy poverty that makes Africa vulnerable, you’ve been scaling up these initiatives. Can you tell us what you have planned?



A. The demand for energy transition in Africa is huge. It is estimated that Africa will need about $1.2 trillion worth of investment to enable, firstly, energy security and, secondly, the transition away from fossil fuels into more sustainable energy. That’s a lot of money, and that amount is not readily available within the African continent, which requires then partnerships with other investors and pools of capital from outside of the continent. From a Standard Bank point of view, we have committed to originating and raising, and we’ll also put our own money – anything between ZAR250 billion to ZAR300 billion ($13.6 billion to $16.4 billion) – in the space of five years. We are already 40% of the way there, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. That’s just one institution, and given the total amount of money required, it is just not enough. We need the partnerships of a range of financial institutions to enable Africa to have energy security and transition.



The second challenge is ensuring that people who are not connected and do not have access to electricity actually get access. It is estimated that less than 50% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa has access to electricity. That’s over 700 million who do not have access. We need to provide them with reliable, cheap, and sustainable energy well into the future. We also have to look at transitional measures to enable access.



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The third element has to do with the impact of moving away from fossil fuels into renewable energy projects. Some towns, like those built around coal mines and coal-fired power stations in South Africa, will need to transition in a manner that does not create massive unemployment and poverty to those small towns. So, a just transition is key. We must undertake it responsibly so that it does not cause hardships for ordinary people. We have partnered with various players and initiated renewable energy projects in South Africa, expanding to other geographies. We have also seen the entry of players who aggregate and generate the electricity and rent out, or people pay based on the amount of electricity they use. And we call those aggregators, because people don’t have to initiate the capital outlay upfront, but rather can pay as they use. And we think that’s going to expand and cover most of sub-Saharan Africa. That solution is going to enable decentralized energy, where you don’t have to invest massive sums of money building the national grid, but you create localized grids that give people access to electricity and deal with energy poverty and energy shortage.



Q. Your mandate is to achieve a portfolio mix that is net zero by 2050, transitioning to a low-carbon economy. In emerging markets such as the DRC and Namibia, how far have these projects come in terms of realization?



A. There’s a lot of ground that has been covered. We have already enabled about 3.5 gigawatts of electricity that is under construction at the moment, in the form of solar installations, power plants and wind plants that have been developed. We’ve also partnered with a number of institutions, including governments, who are working on various initiatives, the first set being those driven by state-owned entities, where they will issue tenders, invite the private sector to build renewable energy generation, which will then fit into the grid. That has been the bulk of what we have been doing up until now. The second set relates to private companies building their own self-generation initiatives, either for their own buildings or their own plants. That portion of our work is covered in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and expanding to even more countries. We think the biggest growth is going to come from that second piece of work that we do with private companies. The third set that we do, is with companies who effectively are in the business of managing and running solar or energy generation. They can do that on behalf of government, or they can do that in order to supply to individual homes. That portfolio is also growing, and we will invite investors to come into sub-Saharan Africa, partner with us as we identify these projects; invest because we think it is good business to be done, but it also has a massive impact in terms of unlocking the economic growth potential and just improving the quality of life of ordinary people within Africa.



Q. Speaking of the private sector, how do you incorporate your activities with the SME sector? How are you unlocking support for them in terms of sustainability-linked financing solutions?



A. The solutions that we’ve developed cover a wide range of banking products, from giving people access to the sort of existing loans to fund solar or wind initiatives. That’s much easier for individuals, because you can use your home loan to effectively take a little bit extra in order to put solar panels on the rooftop. For small businesses, the best solution lies in the use of aggregators who can develop solutions for a specific area and get individual companies within that area to effectively subscribe and have access to reliable, cheap and much more sustainable energy over a long period of time without having to fork out massive capital upfront, because small businesses tend to run on very tight cash flows. Aggregators provide an appropriate solution for them.



Q. In practising responsible investment, how difficult is it to get multilateral, multi-stake-holder support and from governments? What are the regulatory hassles and risks?



A. The situation has improved over the last couple of years, and I wish some of the changes were made much earlier. South Africa had a limit on what people could self-generate; [it was] one megawatt. That limit effectively stopped the private sector from investing and generating electricity on their own. That limit has been removed completely in the last three to four years, and we have seen an explosion of private sector self-generation, and of investment into the energy sector within South Africa, which just shows how regulations can stall the development of a particular sector and deprive the country of access to additional funding as well as to new energy forms and new energy supply.



The second set of regulations that needed to be sort of resolved was harmonize the rules between national government, the energy department, Eskom (national power utility) as well as municipalities. There’s still a lot of work that needs to be done in that space, but a lot of ground has been covered. For example, if someone generates electricity in one part of the country, and there’s already surplus supply in that area, but the demand lies tens or hundreds of kilometers away, how do you transport or wheel that electricity to the other end? You need great infrastructure. What is the tariff regime between the supplier and the demand? And how do you know that the electricity that is supplied by a private supplier on this end will actually go to a customer who’s contracted to that supplier on the other end; what are the pricing mechanisms between the two? And what is the pricing mechanism with regards to the grid? What are the rules of dispute resolution, legal contracting and so on. All of those is being sorted out, and we think over time, those roles will settle and make it easy for integrated electricity supply that has multiple players, with the national grid providing the sort of transportation infrastructure to move from one end to the other. South Africa is slightly advanced in that regard, but we think the policy framework and rules are replicable in other parts of Africa.



Q. Do you see a point where Africa is exporting these concepts to the rest of the world?



A. I think there’s a lot that Africa can export to the rest of the world. I mean some of these bad experiences are, in themselves, good lessons. The whole concept of loadshedding, where you proactively manage demand and supply and plan when to switch off in [certain areas], is on its own, a useful experience in order to protect the grid, but you don’t want to live perpetually in that situation. And so, the second lesson is that if governments and regulators quickly remove the regulatory obstacles, you can unlock massive potential from the private sector and from your community. And South Africa is a case in point. There are about 12 gigawatts worth of electricity currently under development; that is about 20% of the installed capacity of Eskom. That’s quite a lot, and that has happened in the last couple of years, which just shows that if you create the right regulatory environment, you can unlock the potential and the power of the private sector. And there’s something powerful in that, and there’s a lesson that can also be replicated in other sectors; that government needs to set the rules, but those rules must enable society to grow and to develop, and must be aimed at tapping into the potential and the capacity of the rest of that society. The third lesson is that partnerships are a powerful way of dealing with challenges and problems that confront many of our countries. We all want to get to the best possible out come, and if we try and do it individually, unfortunately, our efforts will have limited impact, but if we align the interests of different stakeholders, suddenly, the impact is substantially bigger, and we get to the desired goal much quicker.



Q. South Africa is going through a historic phase right now after 30 years of democracy. The country has entered an era of coalition politics. From a banker’s point of view, how do you view the current political landscape?



A. I think it’s an interesting scenario, we live in interesting times. But if one looks at what has been happening globally, coalition governments are not new. They have been in existence in many of the European countries for quite a while. Some of them are much more stable and better functioning, others are stable but dysfunctional. And so, we would want to gravitate towards a more stable and better functioning coalition government and South Africa has had a history of a government of national unity after its first democratic elections, where President Nelson Mandela went out of his way to create a government of national unity, despite the fact that the African National Congress (ANC) had the majority. Now we’re forced by circumstances, because no party has won a majority in parliament, but there are some positive things that have come out. The ruling party has accepted that it has lost its majority, it has endorsed the outcome of the election, and is managing the transition in a responsible manner that is something extremely positive and good for Africa and for the developing world. Secondly, there’s engagement across political parties, and the initial reaction from some of the major parties has been extremely positive, with all of them committing to work in the interest of the country, bar one or two who have objections for their own reasons, but by and large, most political parties have committed themselves to working together in the interest of South Africa with a view of stimulating economic growth and ensuring that the will of the South African electorate is respected. I think that alone demonstrates a high degree of maturity, and it’s something that must be cherished.



So, I’m far more optimistic about the future of South Africa. Of course, it will bring new dynamics, it will change the rule of the game, but I think it’s going to have much stronger checks and balances, and if managed properly, it could actually stimulate massive economic growth in South Africa and send a very positive signal about the art of the possible, if people rise above their petty political differences and act in the interest of the country.



Q. As a bank, how are you leveraging AI, blockchain, and other new technologies in the world of financial services?



A. The financial services industry is in a process of continuous change. We have seen the emergence of new technologies, of much cheaper forms of providing banking services. Old banks have convoluted IT infrastructure, more like spaghetti, with massive risks and a lot of manual work in order to try and pull things together, but technology has enabled the simplification of many of these services. Payments now have become easily acceptable, covering a range of players, even beyond banks; the cost associated with those services has become significantly cheaper, and blockchain is providing an avenue to modify that even further and also reduce inefficiencies and improve the effectiveness of financial institutions. We’ve also seen the use of technology which enhances the leveraging of data. Banks are sitting on a massive amount of data on the basis of client behavior and so on; that data is not currently being optimally used to benefit clients, to anticipate what their needs are likely to be and proactively offer solutions best suited for them. Suddenly, with AI, we can do that, and we have started to do that as Standard Bank in some of our product offerings. But of course, there are also risks that come with AI; AI is dependent on the data you have, the historical patterns, and if those historical patterns were discriminatory, we are likely to have discriminatory practices being perpetuated now by machines, because they are picking up on those data and patterns and using them to develop new solutions… You also need, therefore, a human being to work with machines in order to look out for discrimination for inherent practices that may not be fair and equitable across your entire time with the client base.



Q. We’re in Dubai, known for its digital economy and for being a leading hub for attracting foreign direct investment. What lessons can be learned from the city’s success? You have a presence here at the Dubai International Financial Centre. Please tell us about your association with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).



A. I see a lot of potential the African continent can derive from the association and interaction between corporate funds from the UAE and the Middle East, broadly speaking, with opportunities in the African continent. We spoke about the energy transition and the amount of capital required. This region has well-established sovereign funds and entities that have the capital and are looking for opportunities. Our office here seeks to make those connections so we can leverage what we don’t have and offer clients, as well as investors from the Middle East, opportunities that sit in the African continent, which have significantly higher return and massive growth prospects into the future. The second-most important lesson here is about the leadership, demonstrated by the UAE’s President as well as other leaders. It’s unbelievable, where a place not endowed with arable land, not endowed with minerals, and not endowed with a large population, has been able to transform itself into a significant hub that connects the Middle East to Europe, to Africa, to the Americas, to Asia… The transformation is unbelievable, which just shows the power of leadership and of having a proper vision and being able to execute that vision with diligence, discipline and consistently, over a period of time.



Updated on August 30 2024; Kenny Fihla has now been appointed as the Deputy Chief Executive of the Standard Bank Group and Chief Executive of Standard Bank South Africa. His responsibilities will include the Group&#8217;s Africa regions and offshore businesses.

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