Rawbank is a successful model of family business in DR Congo. His success story was discussed during the fifth edition of Makutano International Economic Forum in Kinshasa. Experts, businessmen, lawyers and executive of this bank reflected on Saturday, September 7, 2019, around the difficulties faced by family businesses face the challenge of sustainability.

The panellists have all started from a bitter conclusion: very often, the founders of family businesses have trouble passing the baton to successors. Five causes explain this difficulty. These are respectively:

Unpreparedness is often judged as a consequence of the egoism of founders. Also, in other cases, this preparation is happening in a hurry. Unlike companies whose founders are not African, children are introduced to business from an early age. They are oriented to follow courses of interest to the company. This is not the case for most Congolese in particular and Africans in general.

However, Rawbank which is a family business illustrates the case of a good preparation.

« In Rawbank, we saw Rawji’s children start at the bottom of the ladder and finish in positions of responsibility. This way of doing things allows the person promoted to understand the problems of each service, « said Deputy Director General for Risk and Administration Christian Kamanzi.

Then there are the inheritance rules from tradition. Very often, the panelists noted, positions of responsibility are attributed according to the birthright and not the skills.

They also talked about cultural pressure. If it is difficult to dissociate the entrepreneur from his person, there is an antagonism between the relationship and the passionate.

Added to this is the dispute over shares between children of a large family, they note. Which drives some to sell the business to third parties.

Finally, the expatriation of heirs. On this point, Joss Ilunga, CEO of Dijimba, shared his testimony. Living and working in Europe, he had to return home to take over the family business Pharmagros.

#Makutano5: table ronde autour du #family #business. @SultaniMakutano @tshiswaka5 @GoodLuck225 @AllegraFosh2 @AlainNdaba @SODEICO_ @Zoom_eco @waywebdigital @Widoobiz @Dan_Wawina @WeloAlex @MuzembeK @OnyumbeS @wembi_steve @FBNBankRDC @NyenyeziSolange @Rawbank_sa @qzafrica @ONU_fr pic.twitter.com/Tu0bKuoZdz

— mbesse ghislain (@ghislainmbesse) September 7, 2019

Experts believe that it is necessary to get around all these difficulties to sustain family businesses in the DRC. Starting from the example of the Rawji whose history goes back to the beginning of the XXth century when Merali Rawji (father of Mushtaque, Mazhar Aslam and Murtaza) settles in the east of what is then the Belgian Congo and begins the trade of the coffee and cocoa.

In 1966, the Rawji group acquired Beltexco, a consumer goods distributor. In 2002, Rawbank is launched in a chaotic banking sector. However, this does not shake the determination of Rawji to build the first commercial bank of the Congo.

With a constant and steady growth of its deposits ($ 1.5 billion, + 27% compared to 2017), credits ($ 665 million, + 59.5%) and total assets ($ 1.67 billion) of dollars, + 25%), Rawbank, in 2018, confirmed its leadership position and its willingness to think big for the Congo.

As much as it continues to expand its branch network across the country, Rawbank remains strongly committed to the people through a diversified and efficient program of corporate social responsibility. This program supports education, culture, health, supervision of children and vulnerable people.

As a reminder, this session of exchange and reflection of the fifth edition of Makutano was sponsored by Rawbank.

Nadine FULA