Cameroon’s Commercial Banking Sector: PART 4 – Gwendoline Abunaw, An Anglophone Lady Standing Strong In The Commercial Banking Sector In The Country.

Mrs Gwendoline Abunaw, the University of Buea and London trained professional banker, has since 2017 being the General Manager of the reputed and popular commercial bank in Cameroon, Ecobank, a Pan-African bank. Not only that, she also doubles as the General Manger of “Cluster CEMAC” of the Ecobank Group, which means that she  oversees the implementation of decisions taken by the Group in the bank’s affiliates in total of seven countries.

It should be noted that a total of 11 of the 19 commercial banks currently operating in Cameroon, are foreign banks, or better still, banks that were created with foreign capital. The 11 commercial banks include: 1) BICEC, 2) BANGE Bank. 3) CITI Bank Cameroon 4) Societe General Cameroun (former SGBC) 5) Standard Chartered Bank Cameroon. 6) Ecobank Cameroun. 7) United Bank for Africa, UBA Cameroon. 8) Banque Gabonaise Pour le Financement International, BGFI Bank, 9) Access Bank. Cameroon 10) SCB Cameroun. 11) Banque Atlantique Cameroun.

Appointment Of General Managers From The Home Countries Of Foreign Banks

The general tendency is that these commercial banks created with foreign capital, and that are operating in Cameroon as subsidiaries or affiliates to their foreign mother financial institutions, have as General Managers persons from the home countries of the mother financial institutions.

Let’s take as example BICEC, which is the oldest commercial bank in Cameroon today. BICEC was an affiliate of a French group for many years, and during those years the bank always had a French man as General Manager. The highest level, to which a Cameroonian could rise in the bank, was the post of Deputy General Manager. When the French group which was the majority shareholder in BICEC sold its shares to a Moroccan group a few years ago, the French General Manager left, and a Moroccan was sent by the new mother company to take over the post of General Manager.

 Ecobank Group, As A Pan African Group, Has A Different Mentality

But the Ecobank Group, with an affiliate operating in Cameroon, has a different ‘mentality’, perhaps because they are a Pan African Group.  The Group gives its confidence to any African that excels in his or her work, blended with good conduct. Nationality or sex does not matter. What matters is competence.

And that was what happened to Mrs Gwendoline Abunaw. After working in two other credible financial institutions, Standard Chartered Bank Cameroon and CITI Bank Cameroon, and then at Ecobank Cameroun, where she put in a total of 17 years, Gwendoline Abunaw, reputed for her hard work and high moral rectitude, coupled with her wealth of rich experience, won the confidence of the Ecobank Group which in 2015 first appointed her to the post of Deputy General Manager of Ecobank Cameroon. This was followed in 2017 with her being crowned with the post of General Manager of Ecobank, Cameroun. Again followed in 2021, an additional post of General Manager, as the   Cameroonian lady, Gwendoline Abunaw, received another appointment to double as General Manager of the “Cluster CEMAC” of the Ecobank Group.

Ex – Student Of University Of Buea – The Place To Be

Gwendoline Abunaw studied Banking and Finance at the University of Beau where she obtained her First Degree.  She later moved to the London Metropolitan University in Britain, where she obtained an MBA.

Mrs  Abunaw started her professional career in the banking sector in 1998, when she joined Standard Chattered Bank Cameroon. In 2004 she moved over to Ecobank Cameroon, and left a year later to Citi Bank. She returned to Ecobank in 2011, and in 2015 she was appointed to the post of Deputy General Manager. Then in 2017 she rose to the post of General Manager of Ecobank Cameroun.

At the end of 2021, Mrs Abunaw again landed another big appointment, which was to double as General Manager of the “Cluster CEMAC” of the Ecobank Group. Ecobank Group  that has subsidiaries or affiliates in all the six member States of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC. These countries are: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Republic (Congo Brazzaville), Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

The Ecobank Group also has an affiliate in Sao Tome and Principe, and has included the country in their “Cluster CEMAC”, apparently for the sake of convenience. But in actual fact, Sao Tome and Principe is not part of the CEMAC Zone, or better still, it is not a member of CEMAC.

As General Manager of “Cluster CEMAC” of the Ecobank Group, Mrs Gwendoline Abunaw coordinates decisions taken in relation to the bank in the six countries of the CEMAC zone, plus Sao Tome and Principe. This means that she is the Boss of Ecobnak in the Central African Sub – region, including Sao Tome and Principe.

It is also interesting to note that in August 2022, Mrs Gwendoline Abunaw was elected as the President of the Association of Professional Credit Establishments in Cameroon, commonly known by the French acronym, APECAM, and was installed by the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze. She was the first female to hold the post, and the third Cameroonian to be President of APECAM.

Big Achievements  

These are big achievements, by a great lady, with a great mind. In a country or even a continent where it is rare to fund a woman rise to the post of General Manager of a renowned commercial bank, not to talk of a double post of General Manager, Mrs Abunaw is certainly a pride to Cameroonian women, and a role model or a source of inspiration to young women aspiring to rise to high heights in their different career.  The Mentor News thus places Mrs Gwendoline Abunaw, in its category of Big Achievements / Great Minds. More grease to her elbows.