The Banking Crisis

Every year the World Bank publishes their “Doing Business” survey. It ranks countries on how easy it is the start, register, and run a business within its borders. In 2010, Guinea ranked 173^rd. On of the indicators is how easy it is to open a bank account. Based on my experiences here, I am surprised we are not ranked last. In June, I started helping an NGO open a new joint bank account. They were already account holders at this bank. First of all you need to go get ID photos taken. There are few places to do this, they are expensive, and the hours of operation are at best unpredictable and at worst, non-existent. You need to photo copy all your documents (the bank does not do this to create yours dossier). After you run around town collecting all the requisites, you wait for hours at the bank for a meeting and then (in my case), months for the account to be open. After 2 months, we stopped the process. We never succeeded in opening the account.

For my current project, BiblioTech, we need a credit card both to purchase the initial stock of Kindles and to put new books on in the future. I asked my NGO is we could get a credit card from a Guinean bank that would work internationally. The response was an instant no. That does not exist. In trying to find alternative solutions, I went to Conakry and I ended up talking to a PC staff member whose husband works for the largest Guinean bank. She told me that she was fairly confident that such a thing did exist, called him and got the product name. She told me go back to the Kindia branch and ask for a “Carte Bleue”. They should know what I am talking about and be able to open it up for me there. So back to Kindia and the waiting room to meet with the bank director. I could taste victory. After a few hours of waiting I got called in. He had no idea what I was talking about. He told me he was going to e-mail someone in Conakry and to come back in three days. So I waited the three days and came back. I was informed that a card existed but he did not know if it would work for international purchases. I had to go to Conakry HQ and meet with a Mr. Diallo to find out and to apply for it. One problem, he would not give me Mr. Diallo’s contact information. So I called my PC contact who found out his number for me. I explained what I wanted and that I was PC and he told me to come in. So it was back to Conakry. Amidst rumors riots and protests, I headed downtown to the HQ. I found Mr. Diallo. I again explained what I wanted and how I got his contact information. His response was, “Ok. I have two problems. One, I don’t know how you got my phone number. And two, I do not do credit cards.” After many apologies for wasting his valuable time, he gave me the name of the person I had to see. I went to his office. His response was shock that the Kindia branch had sent me in the first place since all we needed was to fill out a simple form that had to be submitted to the HQ in Paris by the branch where the account was opened. I could not do anything in Conakry. I took his card and the form and headed back to Kindia. In Kindia, I met with the director, handed him the form and asked him to apply for us. He still had no idea how to do this so I gave him the contact for the helpful man in Conakry. Unfortunately, cell phone service has been terrible of late and he could not reach him. He told me he would send this an e-mail and to come back in a few days. Right now I am waiting for “a few days” to pass. My first visit to the bank to ask about this was August 25^th. It is now Oct 1^st and still no credit card is in site. I will go back tomorrow and will hopefully have good news. How can businesses be expected to function and grow if they cannot even get a large bank to understand the basic products available and know how to support their clients in the use of something as simple as a credit card?

Sick as a fish

I was pretty sick the past couple of days. In Guinean you develop a “new normal” for what is sick and what is healthy. So while I would have been alarmed and shocked with what was going in the US, in Guinea, I come to expect something like this every once in a while. I even had a friend going through the same thing about 20 hours ahead of me so I could check in and see what the future had in hold for me. My community was very concerned since they thought I had malaria. I would not be shocked if a broken wrist was misdiagnosed as malaria in this country. So I had many visitors. My counterpart (PC assigns you an official work partner) came three times on Friday and was alarmed that I was not eating. I promised him that on Saturday I would eat some bread and to not worry. Well worry he did and he and his wife decided to bring me a meal on Saturday. They came by around 5 with a plate covering another plate dropped it off, said hello, and left. I wondered what could be inside. Bread? Bananas? Plain rice? Maybe bouille (it’s rice or corn or millet pounded into a flour, reformed into balls and then boiled until it has a stew consistency)? I opened the plate and what did I find? A whole fish that looked both terrifying and terrified. Somehow it looked sharp and the mouth was open bearing teeth. The eye socket, a black abyss. It was on the plate with a huge pile of greasy potatoes, onions and spices and topped with a huge dollop of mayonnaise. This is something I would not be able to stomach even if I had not been throwing up. I threw the lid back on, and once I realized that the smell would not make me sick, I had to laugh at the situation. It was incredibly sweet of them to prepare me such a feast, but another case of culture clash. As I was told many times, in Guinea if you don’t keep eating hearty meals while your sick you will never recover and never get your strength back, where as in the US we look at the stomach flu as a reason to eat nothing but broth and saltines. Anyway, I’m much better now and was able to sneak the food to my cat and neighbors without anyone knowing so at least somebody ate like a king.