Tony Volcère new CEO of SCU |07 December 2020
The AGM in full swing (Photo: Thomas Meriton)
Tony Volcère is the new chief executive of the Seychelles Credit Union as voted for by members during the 50th annual general meeting held at ICCS on Saturday afternoon.
“It is an honour for me to be appointed as chief executive of SCU (Seychelles Credit Union), especially after all this time that I have been working in the financial and accounting sectors,” said Mr Volcère who has over 20 years of experience in accounting and finance.
“I intend to continue on the same line as my predecessors and the preceding board, but, I will push more in terms of reviewing the products that SCU offers, bringing about more digitalisation internally and increasing and improving participation of members through education. Furthermore I think it is important to develop the current workforce, as from what I have observed, the workforce comprises many youths, so by taking them and the organisation to the next step. Ultimately though, I would like to see SCU as a household brand which is recognised for its efforts to deliver on the principles which guide and govern SCU, such as accountability and transparency, among others,” added Mr Volcère.
Mr Volcère, backed by a new board and supervisory committee, replaces Ingrid Sinon who was appointed chief executive (CEO) on October 1, 2015. As turnout was fairly low on Saturday, Mr Volcère’s nomination and that of the board and committee had to be approved by at least two thirds of the members present, as provided for by the Seychelles Credit Union’s (SCU) governing constitution.
As such, the composition of the new board of directors is as follows: chairman Brian Julie, vice-chairman Michel Pierre, and Monica Irimani, Mary-May Amade and Michel Felix as members.
The three approved members of the supervisory committee are Divino Sabino, Dora Ernesta and Nicholas Woodcock, although it remains to be announced who will assume chairmanship and vice- chairmanship of them.
In addition to elections, members had an opportunity to learn more of the cooperative’s performance over the year 2019, where despite all the challenges, it emerged with a positive balance sheet. Among the challenges it was highlighted are tensions with the Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) with regard to ATMs, foreign exchange and dividend payments, as well as with members who fail to respect payments of dues and repayment loans, resulting in costly and time consuming court action, according to outgoing chairman Selby Dora.
Providing an overview of SCU’s financial performance, outgoing CEO Sinon highlighted improvements from 2018 to 2019 in terms of membership, savings and shares and total assets. Around 900 new members joined SCU over 2019.
“As you can see for 2020, even with Covid-19, SCU’s assets have reached half a billion rupees (R510,990,000), which goes to show that even in times of crisis, we are continuously improving. In 2019 it was around 493 million, just under half a billion, and this was exceeded in 2020,” she said.
There was also some discussion with regard to policies for persons who default on loan repayments, SCU’s expenses and the ATM project. With regard to the ATM project, members were informed that the system is almost live and is presently in the testing phase among staff and employees of SCU. The project is incurring substantial expenses in license fees among other associated expenses, and is expected to do so for the foreseeable future.
Despite the good news of improved financial performance, there was some discontent about the Central Bank’s directive to suspend SCU’s 5 percent dividend payments to members, a decision which members argued is unfair and should be challenged. A lot of time was spent discussing the issue with propositions to pursue legal action or appeal the decision to the Minister for Finance, Economic Planning and Trade Naadir Hassan, within 15 days from the issuance of the directive, said to be Friday December 4, 2020.
There was also some disagreement as to which external auditors should audit the SCU, after the CBS has instructed that Baker Tilly should no longer do so. Therefore BDO Associates are SCU’s new external auditors, at a cost of R140,000 as compared to the R80,000 fee charged by Baker Tilly.
Health and safety protocols put in place by the Ministry of Health were observed at the AGM.
Laura Pillay
