Francis...



This morning I randomly asked the house cook (thank God for cheap labour in Africa), Francis, what he does with his 7,000 ksh monthly salary (roughly 100$). He revealed to me that he splits his salary into three portions immediately upon receipt. Firstly, Francis sends his mother back home some upkeep cash every month come rain or shine. Secondly, he's opened up an interest free bank account at the local post office into which he deposits cash for his sister's school fees. Lastly, the remainder of the salary is then used to buy whatever building material he can afford for a house he's building himself back in his rural home. Alcohol is never a priority and soda is a luxury. Every coin is accounted for and none is wasted. Every project is forecasted and its consequences thought through thoroughly. Considering that Francis is a year 9 drop out, this guy is a star when it comes to handling the till. I get an allowance double his salary and I never get past mid-month despite having zero bills. And it's not just him, there are millions of others like him out there who can stretch a shilling farther than an irredeemable underware gone South.

Let's quit the patronage and call a spade a spade. Whatever these Ivy League schools are teaching in banking classes nowadays must be crap. Unfortunately some of the decisions the world's top bankers may make are at times so questionable that we just have to find out which galaxy they studied in. For instance the ‘brilliant' Alan Greenspan decided to ‘let capitalism work itself out.' Others such as former Meryl Lynch CEO, John Thain, decided that 1 million dollars of share holders funds would best be used to refurbish his office complete with a 1,000$ waste paper basket. And what about the small timers who went about dishing mortgages and credit haphazardly like they were going out of style? Such characters don't deserve to be called bankers. When I analyse their arguments such folk are most probably unable to manage their finances. They probably have never had to make ends meet on a shoestring budget while still catering for dependants, and they probably live in governments that replace their toilet paper when it runs out. If I were to be head of Citi for example, I'd probably be hyper radical and fire all ‘wannabe' bankers and bring in a bunch of Francis'. Either that or I'd put all present employees under a ‘financial hardship' course involving a three week stay in rural Africa on a shoestring budget. We can even name it ‘Broke but surviving'. Maybe then can we get bankers who can take care of the fund s entrusted to them rather than create a mess and blame it on an ‘economic cycle'. Fine, these cycles may exist but what if they are beacons that serve to remind us that something's amiss with the individuals in the system rather than the system itself?

The best bankers turn their client's dreams into realities and not nightmares.

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