My Internship Report (Autosaved)

A report on my Internship at the Head Office of BICEC, Douala

DECLARATION.

This is to declare that, I, PAUL BIKELEL MATEMB, student of the Department of economics in the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences of the Catholic University of Cameroon (CATUC),Bamenda, with Matriculation N° 81012, carried out a 2 months internship at the Loans Management service, at the head office of BICEC.

This report is submitted in partial fulfillment for the award of a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Economics, and I declare that this is written by me.

Sign: Date:

PAUL BIKELEL MATEMB (Intern)

DEDICATION

Written by PAUL BIKELEL MATEMB Page 1


I PAUL BIKELEL MATEMB HEREBY DEDICATE THIS PIECE OF WORK TO THE ALMIGHTY GOD WHO GAVE ME THE STRENGTH TO write THIS REPORT, and entry into the institution where I did my internship, without forgetting my parents; MR and Mrs. MATEMB PAUL, WHO SPONSORED ME THROUGHOUT MY EDUCATIONAL CAREER. May the almighty lord god Jesus Christ bless them and give them long life.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS



With this type of activity and its nature, it could not have been DONE

singlehandedly. So, with support from many angles indeed contributed to

the completion of this report. Unfortunately, not all contributors can be

mentioned; nevertheless, they will always be within me.

To begin, I thank the Almighty GOD for his protection and his love and for

giving me the health and the strength to carry out this exercise.

Furthermore I will now give a heavy thanks to my family for the spiritual,

moral, financial, physical support they offered to me. My dearest of

parents my mother (Mrs. PAULINE matemb) and my father

(Mr.matembpaul).

My appreciation goes to all the staff members of the loans management

service or sap (Service d’administration des prets) of bicec bank who

made my study experience very favorable and conducive, especially

Mr.diboaMondo (head of the loans management service), MR. Bonny

matanda ADRIEN (my supervisor), Mr.njohdipita Manfred,

Mr.tonyesimon,miss ngop-loti Frederique helene,and the other staff

members of the LOANS management service whose names I didn’t

mention.

Abbreviations used



1) Bicec: Bank INTERNATIONALE DU CAMEROUN POUR L’epargne et le

credit or international Bank of cameroon for savings and loans

2) Bicic : BANQUE INTERNATIONALE POUR LE COMMERCE ET

L’INDUSTRIE du cameroun or international Bank of cameroon for

commerce and industry

3) Bpce : BANQUE POPULAIRE, caisses d’epargne

4) SME : Small and Medium size Enterprises

5) Smi: Small and Medium size Industries

6) COBAC: Commission bancaire de L’Afrique Centrale or Banking

Commission of Central Africa.

7) BEAC : Banque des Etats de l’Afrique centrale or Bank of Central

African states

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE



1.0Justification of the Internship1.1 Background information on BICEC1.2 Mission of BICEC1.3 Vision of BICEC1.4 Objectives of BICEC

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 2.0 The General presentation of BICEC2.1 The Loans Management Service2.2 Comparison between theory and practice

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 3.0 Products and Services offered by BICEC3.1 Main activities/Functions of BICEC3.2 Customers and Competitors of BICEC

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 Situation Analysis of BICEC( SWOT Analysis)

4.1 SLEPT Analysis (Social, Legal, Economic, Political, Technological)

4.1Discussions and Conclusion

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0 Evaluation of the Internship: Limitations and successes of the internship5.1 Recommendations

5.2Conclusion

CHAPTER I



1.0 justification of internship

This internship is carried out in partial fulfillment of my 3years B.Sc. (Bachelor of Science) program in Economics.Also, I am carrying out this internship to; develop skills and techniques directly applicable to my career and to understand informal organizational and interpersonal relationships in a corporate setting.

1.1Background Information on BICEC

BICEC Bank is a public limited company with a share capital of 12billion FRANCS CFA, whichwas created on March, 14th 1997, following the liquidation of BICIC that took place under particularly challenging economic circumstances. It was indeed necessary to restructure BICIC given that the economic crisis of the 80s and 90s did not spare it.

On March 1997, the Board of Directors of BICIC decided to establish BICEC, whose management was entrusted to Banquepopulaire Group which accomplished its mission well and its mission was; making the bank profitable and paving the way for its privatization in 3 years.

In 2000, BICEC became a subsidiary of Banquepopulaire Group. Since 2011, BICEC has continued benefiting from the extensive experience brought about by the merging of the BPCE Banking Groups.

Today, BICEC is a major stakeholder in the Cameroonian banking sector with a solid overall performance.

1.2Mission of BICEC

BICEC’s mission is to make her presence felt in the Cameroonian banking sector by providing services and products like no other bank in Cameroon. She wishes to be an outstanding bank in terms of quality of services. BICEC’s mission statement is, “la presence bancaire au Cameroun”, meaning the Banking presence in Cameroon.

1.3 Vision of BICEC

BICEC’s vision is to resume its leading position in the Cameroonian banking market and become the first bank in terms of profitability and quality of services. Her vision is at the Head of her 3years strategic plan named; “s’affirmerdurablement” or assert sustainably

1.4 Objectives of BICEC

The primary objective of any private-sector business organization such as a Bank like

BICEC is to realise profits, therefore BICEC’s primary objective would normally be profit

maximization or profit-making. The secondary objectives of BICEC as stated in its 3years

strategic plan are;



Reaching a stock of 382,000 customers by 2017, since she has a stock of 210,000

customers as of now.

670billion FCFA of outstanding deposits and 524billion FCFA ofoutstanding

credits (Loans) by 2017. In reaching this outstanding level, the Bank aims at

increasing its market share which would fall within 18.30% for Uses and 20.72%

for resources.

A Net BankingIncome of 58billion FCFA by 2017.

A Gross Operating Income of approximately 30 billion FCFA by 2017

A Net profit of 15.6billion FCFA by 2017 despite a risks cost of 5billion FCFA

CHAPTER II



2.0The General presentation of BICEC

The organizational structure of BICEC accounts for organizational growth, profitability, and success. Thus BICEC has been efficient and successful over the years as a result of its organizational structure and managerial system.

BICEC is structured around 3 poles:

Decision-making Pole:

o Board of Directors

o Head Office

o Executive Committee

Operational Pole:

o General Secretariat

o Central Departments

o Divisions

The Network :

o Littoral Regional Office

o Centre/South/East Regional Head Office

o West Regional Head Office

o NorthRegional Head Office

o South West Regional Head Office

The various poles are managed by men and women who incessantly adopt strategies to:

Offer customers modern products and services adapted to market conditions,

Provide excellent customer services to its clientele

Ensure Customer responsiveness

Consolidate its presence across the national territory of Cameroon.

The organogram of BICEC’s Executive Committee or Management Committee is presented below;

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE


Chairman of the Board of Directors


o

r

1.

Under the control of Central Director of Network you have;

The Regional Director of Littoral The Regional Director of Centre/South/East The Regional Director of South West The Regional Director of the North The Regional Director of the South

Some of the posts on BICEC’s organogram drawn above are explained below;

Boards of Directors: This is a group of persons elected by the shareholders and are responsible for the major decisions and policies of the bank, and drawing up the long-term plans of the Bank

Board Chairman: He is the president of the Board of Directors. He is also known as the boss of the bosses


General Manager

Deputy General Manager

Central Director of Production

Director of Central Organization and Data

Bank

Director of Business Development

SME’s and New Technologies

Central Director of the Internal audit

Director of accounts and Treasury

Director of Management

Director of Estate Management

Director of Research and Decision

Central Director of Network

Central Director of Risk and

Compliances

Director of HumanResources

Director of large Enterprises and

Marketing


General Manager: He She is appointed or elected by the board of directors. He or She manages the affairs of the Bank and he is under the direct supervision of the Board of Directors.

Deputy General Manager: He or She is appointed or elected by the board of directors to assist the general manager and act on his behalf when he is absent.

Regional Directors: They are in charge of different branches in their area of Jurisdiction. They supervise and oversee all the activities of the Bank’s branches in a region.

Branch Managers: They are in charge of the branch under their control. They supervise the activities of their respective branches.

The following departments of BICEC are also enumerated below;

Department of Risk and Legal Affairs: This department is headed by the Central Director of Risk and Compliance whose function is to take care of Legal matters concerning the Bank. This department also handles loan recovery and customers complain which cannot be handled at branch offices.

Human Resource Department: This department is in charge of the recruitment, selection, training and discipline of workers. This department is also in charge of; recruiting interns, holiday workers and intermediary staff, handling workers complains, issuing workers ‘pay slip, querying workers. The Human Resource Director is in charge of this Department

Department of Internal Audit: This department deals with the internal audit of the bank. It evaluates the efficiency of the various operations of the Bank. This department is headed by the director of internal audit.

Accounts and Treasury Department: This department is in charge of producing the financial statements of the Bank and keeping record of all the financial transactions of the Bank.This department ensures all accounting procedures and periodic reports are updated, prepare the Bank’s financial statements and send them to the Taxation Department, COBAC and BEAC. This department is headed by the Director of accounts and Treasury.

Department of Large Enterprises: This department is in charge of handling the banking demands of large Enterprises or companies who are customers to BICEC like; opening or closing an account, applying for a bank loan, financing a project, financing the purchase of a fixed asset such as an equipment or truck.

2.1 The Loans Management Service

The Loans Management Service is a sub-section of the Litigations and Legal, which is in charge of issuing Bank guarantees and validating the order to grant loans by computer which



is given by the Department of Decision and file study which studies the file of customers who apply for a loan. internship It is in this department I did my for 2 months.

2.2 Comparison between Theory and Practice

Actually, what I learned in BICEC didn’t match with the theory I learned in the classroom, because in the classroom, especially for we the Economics students, they thrill us with a lot of Mathematics, Statistics, and Economic Models. Meanwhile at BICEC, I learned lot about Bank guarantees which is a topic taught under banking law, and banking law is for Banking and Finance Students. However learning about Bank guarantees are worth knowing because you can’t do a business without dealing with legal issues, even if you know the business technically, it will always be a problem to you because you are ignorant of the legal issues surrounding that Business.

However, this internship experience helped me to better understand what I was taught in Banking and Finance in Level one as some of the things I there were taught to us in this course.

CHAPTER III

3.0Products and Services offered by BICEC

BICEC does Retail and Corporate Banking that is it offers products and services to Companies (big corporations, SME’s and SMI’s) and Individuals (Civil servants, Private sector workers, Students). The products and services BICEC offers to Individuals are:



Products;

Bank Cards such as VISA Cards, student’s Bank Cards( BICEC Moov) E-PAY BOX which is the machine which reads Credit Cards (Carte VISA) given by

BICEC and operated by many shops and supermarkets in the littoral and Center regions.

Services:

School fees loan Land and House acquisition loan Home renovation loans Education Bonds( Cautionsscolaire) Insurance( Bank loan Insurance policy) Car loan Real-Estate loan Investment Savings or Accounts Remote Banking Overdrafts

The products and services offered to companies are;

Products: VISA Business Gold Card

Services:

Bill discounting Seasonal loans Documentary Credit Stand by Letter of Credit Spot Credit Factoring Investment Loans Bail BICEC( Lease-purchase Credit) Insurance Investment Services such as consultancy in Financial Engineering, Negotiation-

compensation Brokerage and many other services that are not mentioned here.

3.1 Main Activities/functions of BICEC

The main activities of BICEC like any other bank is to accept deposits and grant loans, and deliver other services such as factoring, issuing letters of Credit, issuing Bank guarantees. Nowadays, BICEC like any other renowned Bank provides a wide range of services, more than the ones mentioned earlier which are: Granting Lease-Purchase Credits, Investment Services such as Investment consultancy, Insurance and factoring.



3.2 Customers and Competitors of BICEC

The Cameroonian banking market is very competitive with Banks like Ecobank, UBA, SCB Cameroon, Standard Chartered Bank, CBC Bank, NFC Bank, Afriland First Bank, UBC and BICEC Bank who fight relentlessly to be leaders in the market. As, I said earlier, BICEC does corporate and Retail Banking, meaning that it serves Individuals( Civil servants, Students, private sector workers, farmers, Entrepreneurs) and Companies( big companies, public corporations, para statals, SME’s ,SMI’s). BICEC has 210,000 customers and wishes to have more than that by 2017. She is fighting to regain her position of leader in the Cameroonian banking market, which was taken by Afriland First Bank.

CHAPTER IV

4.0 Situation Analysis of BICEC using SWOT Analysis

SWOT means Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. A SWOT Analysis is a structured planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in a Business venture. The Strengths and Weaknesses are the internal factors which would be favorable and unfavorable which affects BICEC’s performance in the industry, and the Opportunities and Threats are the favorable and unfavorable external factors which affects BICEC’s performance in the industry. These factors are as follows;

STRENGTHS:



Active participation in supporting SME’s ,SMI’s and the Cameroonian economy Approximately 90% of employees are young qualified graduates who just graduated

from the University BICEC’s financial position has been growing for several years now. Supports worker’s shareholding; that is workers can become owners by buying shares

into the Bank which goes a long way to motivate workersand provides a source of permanent equity capital

WEAKNESSES:

Difficulties at various levels such as work overload in certain poles Poor customer service at the counter level, most especially in the branches in and out

of Douala which I have visited

OPPORTUNITIES:

Major player in the Cameroonian banking landscape Has the most extensive branch network in Cameroon There are many people who don’t use banking services in Cameroon yet, and those

people are potential customers to BICEC

THREATS:

Competitors. The Cameroonian banking industry is very competitive Fraudsters and Scammers, like those who use fake Bank Cards (ATM Cards and

Credit Cards: VISA Cards) to withdraw money from the ATM (Automatic Teller Machine).

4.1SLEPT Analysis

SOCIAL: BICEC i offers equal Employment opportunities to people from all tribes in Cameroon. The bank is not racist and it operates in an era whereby people do no longer keep money in their houses but open bank accounts .

LEGAL: BICEC follows the COBAC banking regulations for the running of its daily operations. Also BICEC is regulated by the Ministry of Finance and COBAC to ensure that Cameroonians are given the best financial services at the most affordable prices. The price list of all financial institutions that is the fees and charges for their services is determined by the Ministry of Finance and is signed by the Ministry of Finance and COBAC.



POLITICAL: BICEC like any other Bank in Cameroon is affected by political decisions like the appointment of a new General Manager of COBAC will affect the way BICEC deals with COBAC.

TECHNOLOGICAL:All the branches of BICEC are linked online by Intranet with the help of Software called DELTA. Almost all the operations of the Bank are done using this software. Equally, all 35 branches possess ATM (Automatic Teller Machines) machines which operate 24/7 to facilitate cash withdrawals. BICEC does Internet Banking such that customers can know their bank history just in one click. BICEC also sends SMS alerts to its customers to update them on their current account balance.

BICEC offers credit cards such as the VISA Card which enables customers to purchase goods and services without necessarily paying for them in cash.

4.2Discussion and Conclusion

I did my internship for 2 months (from the 15th July to 15th September) at the Loans Management Service, which is in charge of; typing and editing Bank Commitments by signature, putting in place; loans and other commitments of the Bank. It is the final stage of the bank’s production process. This service is at the Head Office When I arrived at the Loans Management Service, I was handed over to Mr. Bonny Matanda Adrien, one of the Guarantee Editors of the Loans Management Service, who is in charge of editing Bank Guarantees. He was my supervisor and guide throughout my internship. My internship was like a kind of pedagogic program as each staff member of the Loans Management Service lectured me on what he or she is doing including Mr. BonnyMatanda Adrien. My internship was also an immersion into the corporate world as I learned what it entails to work in that kind of milieu.

BICEC doesn’t have a particular internship structure, as they take interns in order to help them in their research for the completion of their final year projects or Theses. However I was given some little tasks to do, such as;

Arranging copiesof Bank guarantees that have already been issued to customers into the file shelf. Each customer has his file were a copy of the Bank guarantee issued to him is kept, which I arranged into the files shelf

Removing these copies from the shelf for cancellation when the customer demands, through a cancellation letter (application letter for the cancellation of a Bank guarantee).



Archiving.

Among all the Banks in Cameroon I know BICEC is the only one who is trying to distinguish herself as a very secured and fraud less Bank.

CHAPTER V5.0 Evaluation of the Internship: Limitations and Successes

I did my Internship for 2 months at the Loans Management Service, at the Head Office of BICEC Bank in Douala. It was a nice experience; I learned a lot of things, both Professional and Social, which will help me in my future professional life. These are the successes and limitations of the Internship stated below;

Successes and Limitations of the Internship:

a) Successes:

The workers of the Loans Management Service are very welcoming and simple, they make you feel free in order to; facilitate your learning, and enjoy your stay at BICEC Bank.



I really learned what it takes to work in the corporate world I also learned a lot of things from my supervisor who is a restless intellectual always

hunting for more knowledge. I learned a lot about working in a company, and a financial company for that matter

such as a Bank like this one. I met different people

b) Limitations:

I was given my badge very late, that is two weeks after my entry to BICEC, interns who entered after me had their badges, which is not fair

My peers of the Loans Management service were asking me about my “theme” or my project thesis which is something that is not obliged for internship reports in the Anglophone system. In the Anglophone system we do internships not only for thesis preparation but, also for an immersion into the profession.

5.1Recommendations

I will recommend BICEC to open a suggestion box for her customers and conduct a serious customer service survey. It is very important because Customer Service is the key in a service firm such as a Bank. The employees especially the ladies at the counters should take this suggestion box issue very serious.

5.2 Conclusion

My Internship at BICEC Bank was a nice experience. I learned a lot about Bank Guarantees which I didn’t learn at school because it’s a topic under banking law which is not part of our Economics courses. A Bank is a pillar of a country’s monetary system because it is through the bank that money (coins and Banknotes) is injected into the economy by the Central Bank (BEAC).In a state, there are two major Economic policies not to joke with, and they are; the Monetary policy and the Fiscal Policy. In Cameroon, the monetary is determined by BEAC, and she implements it through the Banks. The Cameroon Banking system is very minor with many people still to open their Bank accounts and microfinance institutions which areattracting manypeople with their lower charges, lower lending rates and high savings account rate, as compared to BICEC’s. However, the Cameroonian Financial services market gives a choice to the consumer that is he/she can choose to open an account either in a Bank or in a Microfinance Institution depending on his/her income


Documents

My Internship Report (Autosaved)