Mr. Ajaya Ghimire (CEO, Vibor Bank) - Samriddhi, The Prosperity ...

Story of an entrepreneur: Mr. Ajaya Ghimire (CEO, Vibor Bank)
Mr. Ajay Ghimire, CEO of Vibor Bank, a national level category B financial
institution licensed from Nepal Rastra Bank. Mr. Ghimire is also the founder of
Ace Institute of Management and Ace Finance.
He had been a student of science at ASCOL. He aspired to do his MBA at
Fulbright however later ended up studying finance in Slone School. Mr. Ghimire
says he came into banking by accident.
He finished his MBA from MIT. He described his MIT experience as out of the world and very
contrasting as compared to that of Nepal. During an exam at MIT, he faced an incident which
later inspired him to establish Ace Institute of Management.
“I had answered a question wrong but towards the end of exam I realized my mistake. I put a
short note at the end of the answer sheet explaining my wrong assumption that led to the
wrong answer along with the conclusion that I would have reached had I made the right
assumptions. To my surprise, I was awarded full marks. Later, when I inquired why I got full
marks, the reason the teacher gave was what counts is the right knowledge I had and not the
exact answer. The incident had a profound impact on me as being a student in the Nepalese
educational system I was habituated to just the opposite situation. I later returned Nepal and
established Ace Institute of Management which unlike the traditional Nepalese educational
system focuses on practical and up-to-date education.”
After establishing the Ace Institute of Management as a pioneer educational institution of
Nepal, Mr. Ghimire had begun to realize that it was time to support the entrepreneurs, so he
worked on bringing the concept of consumer finance while he was working for Nabil Bank. But
before he could implement his concept, the ownership of Nabil Bank changed.
This led to the establishment of Ace Finance which initiated to support the entrepreneurship
activities in Nepal and support other financial institutions in raising money. However, while
working at Ace Finance, Mr. Ghimire was confronted by a particular problem. To solve the
problem, he the then developed a banking software. Besides this, Ace Finance also came up
with the concept of apartments in Nepal with Ace Apartments.
In 2000 A.D, he began to feel very agitated by the conflict and instability in the country. He was
so disheartened that he realized he must do something. He decided to pursue his studies in
Public Policy. He joined George Town University where he studied the first semester. He found
most of his classmates were government employees. At the George Town University , not
finding the environment very impressive, he joined John Hopkins University after the first
semester where he learned the lesson that “All you can do is create your own world and try to
make as better as possible and don’t worry about anything else.”

After returning to Nepal, Mr. Ghimire started Vibor Investment in partnership which later broke.
Then, he established Vibor Bank and is currently the Chairperson/CEO of the bank. He
describes Vibor Bank as an institution that envisions proliferation of entrepreneurs in Nepal and
has the mission of making capital accessible to more and more entrepreneurs which might
enhance their productivity. He believes traditional banking system cannot provide enough
support to entrepreneurs and therefore he intends to do it through Vibor bank.
Mr. Ghimire believes lack of capital shouldn't be the constraint to entrepreneurs, what really
matters is the idea and persistence of the person. He concluded his experience sharing by telling
that to support the entrepreneurs of Nepal is the dream of Vibor bank.
Questions and Answers
1. Why partnership doesn’t work in Nepal?
- Because of lack of habit of writing down agreements and poor legal system makes it difficult
for partnership to work.
2. Why the venture capitalism hasn't begun in Nepal?
- There isn't enough capital in Nepalese markets for the venture capitalists to work.
- It can be hoped that there will be enough capital in future and venture capitalism will flourish
in Nepal.
3. Will the arrival of international financial institutions pose a serious threat to the local banks in
Nepal?
No, the arrival of International financial institutions in 2011 wouldn’t pose serious threat to the
survival of the local banks. Even though international financial institutions might have immense
capital at their disposal, Nepalese banks have the local knowledge which will act as a
competitive advantage to local banks.
3. What would be the strategies to promote entrepreneurship in Nepal?
- There is the need of strong enforcement of contracts, finding the right people to invest on,
strong rule of law and development of platform where young entrepreneur could come and
discuss.
4. What future do you see with the downturn of the economy?
- Fortunately our linkage with foreign financial arena is not strong enough to have a great
impact on our economy but still there is the need of being cautious.
Mr. Ghimire further highlighted the mindset of traditional banks that were unwilling to take

isks by investing in entrepreneurs rather than invest in secure places and make profits. He also
said it was important to have network in politics in order to do business and the importance of
having someone working in the organization that is good at dealing with bureaucracy.
According to Mr. Ghimire the basic qualities that an entrepreneur should possess are:
persistence, ability to sell an idea, ability to connect with people and convince them of the idea,
passion about the cause, deep understanding of the business environment and politics.
By Surath Giri
Program Assistant
Samriddhi, The Prosperity Foundation
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