Banque Populaire du Rwanda Limited commits to being a customer centric bank through embedding cultural values among its employees as a way of  upholding national  values that transcend culture.

This emerged at the recent training dubbed "Gutoza Intore” at Sports View Hotel in Remera over the weekend where over 450 branch representatives of the bank from across the country were taken through sessions of talks on the seven core Rwandan cultural values by William Ntidendereza, the Secretary General of Itorero.

Talking during the one day training, Ntidendereza said the seven core Rwandan cultural values are dignity, integrity, selflessness, patriotism, hardworking, heroism and having a Rwandan spirit.

Relating to the bank ethics, he urged the bankers to shun vices like bribery and fraud which can lead them to shame after being caught at the end of the day but rather stick to carrying out their work with integrity and be  better employees and citizens of the country.

He also urged "Intore” in the institution to be the examples at work and as it is their job to sensitise Rwandans on how to be exemplary leaders in society. He projected that in  2 years’ time there will be many of these in every society in the country be it in market places, churches, universities and colleges.

"As a leader (Intore), you must endeavour to be an example to the rest of your colleagues. Whenever you have a work mate that seems to be behaving in an improper manner contrary to  cultural values I have told you, always remind him of what he or she is expected of,” advised  Ntidendereza

Judith Muhongerwa the chief human resource officer BPR, said that ethics is not about how one works but how one relates to others. So as they are building the nation’s  professionals of tomorrow, they find need to train their employees on individual values expected in each one of them. 

Muhongerwa said that this training is also a way of building self-awareness in every employee and giving them comfort at work saying that as their employers, they do not only mind on meeting the institution’s vision but also care about the comfort of their employees.

She added that besides supporting the growth of the nation towards this cause, after translating these cultural values at work, they expect to see more  positive results on how they serve and relate to their customers and behave at work. 

"We are expecting that after this training, employees will translate these seven cultural values which actually relate to the ethical values of the bank so that we can have the highest of values to take us through our employment journey,” she says

 The institution intends to carry out this training at least three times a year  to remind themselves of the ethical values and check themselves on whether they are putting them into practice so as to benefit the institution in its various core targets like offering the best customer care to their customers.

Bank Populaire du Rwanda is also known to have been announced as the best customer care provider out of 420 exhibitors from all over the world who brought various products to exhibit in the recently concluded 19th International Trade Fair, hosted in Kigali.