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The speech by the chairman of the Board of Directors on the occasion of the inauguration of the Bujumbura Port Branch : January 31st, 2003 Your Excellency, Minister of Finance, On behalf of the Board of Directors of INTERBANK BURUNDI and on my own, it is a pleasure for me to welcome you on this 12th INTERBANK operational site and to express my thanks to you all for your response to our invitation and reiterate our best wishes of happiness, peace and prosperity for the new year 2003, to you all as well as to your respective families. Our specific thanks are extended to Mr GORAJIA from TOYOTA BURUNDI who kindly retroceded this plot as well as to LOMATEC enterprise which built this branch premise that we inaugurate today. Ladies and Gentlemen, This establishment which welcomes us today is an important step in the life of the Bank : the 12th INTERBANK operational site but also and more particularly the 10th branch of a network today composed of, besides the Head Branch and the counter at BRARUDI, 6 branches in Bujumbura : at the Central Market, Quartier Asiatique, Place de l'Indépendance, Buyenzi, Jabe and today at Bujumbura Port, as well as four branches inside the country : Ngozi, Kirundi,Gitega and Muyinga. An important step since the establishment coincides with the 10th Anniversary of INTERBANK BURUNDI which was registered as per the Registration Deed of the Central Bank of Burundi on September 24th, 1992 and inaugurated three months later, on January 4th, 1993. Ladies and Gentlemen, January 4th, 1993 marked the outcome of a project designed and conducted by some Burundian and Foreign private economic operators who, following the assessment of the financial sector in 1992 and under the leadership of the current Managing Director, Mr Callixte MUTABAZI thought it worth creating a bank with high quality standards in terms of clientele and the service to the clientele. It's worth noting that, for those who love dates, the request for authorisation to establish a bank was favourably received by the Minister of Finance on April 4th, 1992 and that the constitutive Meeting was held on August 31st, 1992. Ten years later, and with the support from you all, this project has come today to the rise of a bank which counts in the burundian banking environment. Ten years whereby INTERBANK BURUNDI has progressively strengthened its position on the burundian banking market thanks notably to the extension of its distribution network. Ten years whereby INTERBANK BURUNDI has come ten times more closer to its clients, in their zones and sectors of activity, on their working sites. This continuous development has been widely possible thanks to your endeavours, it is the result of your support, that you showed us again today by responding to our invitation as many as you are. Allow me once more to express to you my warmfull thanks, on behalf of the Board of Directors, the Management Committee and the whole Staff of INTERBANK BURUNDI Our thanks are particularly extended to the Belgolaise and through it, its representative to these ceremonies, notably Mr THIBAUT DE MAISIERES, who in spite of his various professional duties has made the trip to join us and therefore testified the friendship and the importance of business relations between the Belgolaise and INTERBANK BURUNDI since 10 years back. Thank you Mr THIBAUT. Ladies and Gentlemen, This Bujumbura Port Branch constitutes the crowning achievement of the success of a corner policy that was launched in Ngozi in 1996 and pursued with the establishment of three branches inside the country and five branches in the capital Bujumbura. In the same time, INTERBANK BURUNDI consolidated its financial basis, its solvency and its autonomy by an ever improving profitability. In the same line, the year 2002 was no exception and recorded for the third consecutive year an off tax consolidated output amounting to more than a billion Burundi francs, i.e. 1,085.3M. These achievements are a testimony of significant scores ahead recorded in the building of a banking group ensuring the well-being for the whole of its social body and wealth for its shareholders. They translate also our capacity of resistance and adaptation in a long lasting crisis and which has subsequently deeply affected the economic activity in general and the financial sector in particular. Tried and tested resistance and adaptation through our extension policy, at the origin of a successful positioning on the market, and our strategic choice centred on professionalism and rigour, indispensable conditions for a good control of risks inherent to the banking activity. The rigour and professionalism will remain also the guiding principles for this new establishment aimed notably at serving our importers clients and assisting them in their clearance operations. It is also in that line that the Branch Management will be run by a manager with proven experience and competence, Mrs NIRAGIRA Mireille, previously Manager of Quartier Asiatique Branch and who was, in that capacity, handling an important imports portfolio. Her successor in that position, Mr NIYIGABA Désiré, previously an analyst at the credit Department at the Head Office, has been trained and seriously supervised in the control of risks and will share those gains with the clients of Quartier Asiatique Branch. Ladies and Gentlemen, Being aware that the development of any enterprise requires the contribution and the support of all the partners and friends, we would like to urge you to continue availing, as in the past and today, your solidarity and confidence so that the Bujumbura Port Branch may achieve a satisfactory development. We would like to end our remarks, expressing once more our thanks for your response to our invitation and call on the Minister of Finance, to officially inaugurate the INTERBANK BURUNDI Bujumbura Port Branch.
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