UGANDA — The Board of Directors of Diamond Trust Bank Uganda Limited (DTBU) has appointed Godfrey Sebaana as its new Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director effective April 2nd, 2024.
Mr. Sebaana succeeds Mr. Varghese Thambi, who has driven the Bank’s transformation and growth since July 2007, and is retiring from the Bank at the end of March 2024 but will remain available for a time afterwards to ensure a smooth transition.
Commenting on Mr. Sebaana’s appointment, Mr. Azim Kassam, the DTBU Board Chairman, said that the Bank is looking forward to building on the legacy left behind by Mr. Thambi to accelerate the Bank’s progress on its future growth trajectory.
“I am delighted to welcome Mr. Godfrey Sebaana into the DTB family and look forward to leveraging his rich domestic and regional banking knowledge and expertise to accelerate our future growth,” said Mr. Kassam.
Mr. Sebaana has worked in Uganda and Tanzania and was most recently the Executive Director and Head of Corporate, Commercial, and Institutional Banking at Standard Chartered Bank Uganda.
During his extensive career, he has developed a broad experience in areas ranging from mergers, acquisitions, corporate advisory and financial institutions management, across various industry segments including global and local corporates, SMEs and retail.
Mr. Sebaana is a qualified accountant and a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) UK and holds a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh Business School.
Mr. Kassam also expressed the Bank’s immense gratitude to Mr. Thambi for laying a firm foundation for the Bank in Uganda.
In the last 17 years, DTBU has grown from just one branch to become one of Uganda’s most respected, successful and strategically important financial institutions.
It now has 37 branches across the whole country and its staff complement has grown from less than 60 in 2007 to 680 today, of whom 56% are female.
Whilst the whole DTBU family has contributed to this growth and success, at the centre has been the unstinting effort and unwavering dedication of Mr. Thambi.
“He leaves the Bank as it emerges from the industry-wide challenges of the past few years showing huge promise and potential, and on a very strong platform from which to propel itself into the future.
He takes with him the deep gratitude and very best wishes of the Board, the staff, and the innumerable customers that he and the Bank have supported over the years,” noted Mr Kassam.
DTBU partners TerraPay
Diamond Trust Bank Uganda (DTBU) has partnered with UK payments firm TerraPay to streamline its cross-border money transfer processes as it looks to boost financial inclusion in the country.
TerraPay says the partnership will enable the bank to “facilitate direct account deposits from any part of the world”, allowing customers and expatriates residing outside of the country to send “real-time money transfers to their loved ones in Uganda“.
Willie Kanyeki, TerraPay’s VP of East and South Africa, states that fintech is confident the new collaboration “will help promote financial inclusion in the region, by simplifying global money movement for both individuals and businesses”.
TerraPay adds that the move will expand the bank’s customer base for international money transfers, “consequently bolstering direct international investments within the nation”, while also helping to fuel “the anticipated growth in digital transactions within Uganda“.
In addition, through the partnership with DTBU, TerraPay will expand its own worldwide network for cross-border transactions, which now boasts 140 recipient countries.
Last year, DTB revamped its treasury management system by implementing Profile Software’s Acumen.plus solution.
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