Annual Report 2007

Letter from the Board of Directors
When it changed its name at the beginning of 2007, Banco ProCredit Mozambique adopted the same
corporate image as all of the other ProCredit banks in the group. In the context of this rebranding, it expanded
its range of products and repositioned itself in the Mozambican financial services market as an
attractive provider of banking services. The neighbourhood banking concept is striking a chord with large
numbers of customers, and some of the people we are attracting have never done business with a bank
before. Following the introduction of cards and ATMs and the launch of SWIFT transfers, Banco ProCredit
is today in a position to offer a full range of modern banking services.
By enlarging our branch network, renovating our existing branches, and introducing ProCredit’s corporate
design features, we have made the bank more attractive, and this is clearly reflected in its encouraging
results. We achieved a significant increase in the number of credit and deposit customers and almost
doubled the size of our portfolios in 2007. With growth rates of 87% in the loan portfolio and 96% in deposit
volume, ProCredit Bank far outperformed the sector as whole, which reported 13% and 37% growth,
respectively.
With its loans for agricultural enterprises, the bank has found a highly innovative way of serving the
sector which is the largest provider of employment in the country but which until now had no access to
external finance. The one thousand agricultural loans outstanding at year-end mark only the beginning
of a long-term project which we consider to be of vital importance in terms of its impact on economic development
and employment.
For the first time, the bank saw a particularly strong increase in its staff numbers, and recruitment and
training were a major focus in 2007. The bank’s 240 new employees had to be integrated into the organisation
and prepared for their duties. A broad programme of training and skills development opportunities
was built up for the entire staff, whose numbers swelled to 537. For all new employees the first step was a
bank-specific induction course conducted on-site. For the four banks in Africa, ProCredit Holding has set
up a regional academy where current and potential middle managers can undergo training together. The
ProCredit Academy in Fürth, Germany, is the training centre for the future management personnel of the
ProCredit banks, and to date six Mozambicans have enrolled in its three-year part-time course.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to all of our staff members, without whose commitment
the successes of 2007 would not have been possible. We are convinced that the start of construction
work on our new headquarters in Maputo and the regional expansion of our branch network during
the coming year will help to strengthen the confidence that both our customers and our staff have shown
in Banco ProCredit so far. I wish our staff, customers and management every success for the new year.
Gabriele Heber
Chairperson of the Board of Directors
L e t t e r f r o m t h e B o a r d o f D i r e c t o r s
Members of the
Board of Directors as at
December 31, 2007:
Gabriele Heber
Sandrine Massiani
Jasper Snoek
Members of the
Management Board as at
December 31, 2007:
Yann Groeger
Carla Abrantes de Figueiredo