Accra, Ghana//-Dr Mrs Genevieve Pearl Duncan Obuobi, one of the rising Ghanaian bankers has been featured on African Eye Report, a leading pan-African economic, finance, business, energy and ICT news website to celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day.
She was selected among some of the distinguished women profiled by the website.
Dr Duncan Obuobi has over 15 years working experience spanning from two different banks at the age of 40.
But her expertise, advice and wisdom are always sought-after by both the young and the elderly in the sector and beyond.
Read the Q and A below
Who is Dr Genevieve Pearl Duncan Obuobi?
Genevieve Pearl Duncan Obuobi is a professional banker,who has worked across two different banks all together for 15 years,and also a certified Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi knowledge broker and relationship Coach.
I am also a trained SME consultant. Genevieve is a mother, wife and a career woman, and she is very passionate about financial empowerment of women, personal development of individuals, small and medium scale business systems and structure development and youth leadership mindset shift.
Dr Genevieve stands for healthy values; Integrity, Consistency and Service Excellence.
What motivated you to become a seasoned banker?
I really wanted to become a pediatrician when I was growing up. I studied science at Aggrey Memorial Secondary School in Cape Coast in the Central Region and hoped I could further my science passion in becoming a medical doctor.
However, my dad was a banker and so that was not a bad vocation in my view, so as I couldn’t end up becoming a medical doctor as I desired, I opted for business administration and eventually I got employed as a banking staff Contract staff) in 2004 at GCB (Treasury Back Office)where my banking career all begun.
I believe in excellence in all I do, so I just decided to give off my very best as my love for service excellence resonates with the banking industry.
Then in 2009 when I got employed at Fidelity Bank Ghana, and I experienced the retail banking space, my love for banking grew stronger and since then I have loved my career path even more.
READ ALSO: Genevieve Pearl Duncan Obuobi: A Shining Ghanaian Banking Star – African Eye Report
I have gone through the ranks. I started as a relationship officer, then a Relationship Manager and rose to become a Branch Manager in 2012, three years after joining the bank.
My motivation is just my passion to stand out, serve passionately and put a smile on the faces of others. And as the service industry especially the banking sector resonates with my value of service excellence.I just love to offer my service to both the organization and the customer.
How I got this far and became a seasoned banker, I guess it’s love for what I do, ready to give off my very best in terms of service delivery to customers, gaining customer trust, consistency, diligence, being a bit unconventional, thinking beyond the box and the God Also I think an enabling environment helps one bring out the best in him/herself so my environment…Fidelity has been a great environment in getting me here.
Why are you so passionate about the banking industry?
I am passionate about the banking environment because it resonates with my core values especially service, and the fact that I am passionate about financial empowerment of people especially women, I get the opportunity to advice, coach and help women manage their wealth better and get them the financial advice they need to also ensure their businesses grow and are sustainable
How challenging is your role as the Fidelity Bank Ghana?
As a manager, you are not just responsible for the profitability of your business unit as a part of the Bank, but the growth and development of the branch, your team, and service delivery.
The role has been challenging as you need to be able to identify each team member’s strength/weakness and play to the their strengths in achieving your overall objective, also being able to get your team to believe in you, themselves and progress in terms of their career path and personal development.
Also having different team members joining in your already established team and having to re echo the vision and imbibe your values into these new team members as they may have join with very different values, so the need to get the fit into your culture bit almost always when you get new members .
The whole cycle of team building starts again. Another challenge has been mastering the skill of being more of a leader than just a manager; thus being the visionary, and influencer to get the team members to feel empowered and get the job done and understand that they are an important link of your chain.
Finally my greatest challenge, I will say is because I stand for service excellence, ensuring that my team delivers the best has not been an easy task .However in all these challenges, Determination, Commitment, Resilience and Pursuit of Excellence has helped me overcome.
How challenging was your growing up? And how did you turn it into a good one?
Honestly, growing up was not very challenging as I had a very good family support system. My dad especially played a very good coach in ensuring he built my confidence as a young girl was very inspiring and challenged me to give off my best in all I do.
My mother on the other hand, due to her entrepreneurial mindset and wanting the best for her family was always out to sell and in my late teenage years, she was mostly traveling to go and “hassle “for us so I became the mother of the house at quite an early age and I think that helped me a great deal in becoming a responsible person.
All these have helped shaped me into this great woman. The God factor has been a key factor in shaping me up as the good book says. Train a child the way she should go…and when she grows. She won’t depart from it. The foundation is always very important…I believe.
What legacy do you want to leave behind as a banker?
My legacy for the banking industry will be striving to exceed customer’s expectations;- excellence in service delivery, being a bit unconventional and becoming more agile especially as COVID-19 has made us aware of how important it is to adopt technology and be innovative in doing our business.
What is your advice to the young ones?
My advice to the young ones is that…they should stay focus, be committed to cause, remember success is a journey so short cuts to success isn’t an option.. above all they should always be the difference and be the change they seek.
What are you doing differently to thrive in the banking industry?
I will be done with my Doctoral studies by end of this year God Willing.
After that will still be in my industry, may be a different and more challenging role and will continue to do consulting work in the areas of personal development and coaching, helping SME’s with their systems and structure and Customer Relationship Management enhanced with advisory and capacity building service especially in the banking industry.
Is there anything you would like to add?
My final words are just believe in yourself no matter the challenges you meet on your journey, stay positive always and stay true to yourself. Never forget the God factor because ….just your hard work and efforts won’t sustain you even when you get to the top, my personal view.
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