Mr. George Ahiafor - (director/chief finance officer)
Mr. George Ahiafor is a Director with Uniex (Gh.) Limited. He is the Coordinator of International Divisions and also the Chief Finance Officer of Uniex. He is an American by nationality, a Ghanaian by birth and parentage.
Mr. Ahiafor holds a Bachelor of Science(Management), Computer Sc. Minor from State University of New York,
Maritime College, with Series 7 License, 1982. He holds
post graduate certificates in derivates and banking.
Senior Operations Professional with over 19 years experience in International Banking. Proven record of success and excellent combination of managerial, financial, operations and interpersonal skills with a reputation as a hands-on manager with strong technical expertise in Treasury Derivative products, Foreign Exchange, Money Market Products and Capital Markets Products.
His working experience includes:
- 2003 to date, As a Director and Share Holder of XDSST Ltd, which is the first credit bureau in Ghana.
- Feb. 1999 to Jan 2003, Area Manager, Treasury Operations (West Africa), STANDARD CHARTERED BANK GHANA LTD
Managed Treasury Operations units in the West African Region – Gambia, Cameroon, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast.
Responsibilities included:
- Setting up all treasury operations units, process reengineering to tighten controls and cascade training.
- Set up Risk management units and processes to enhance control and monitoring.
- Ascertain and provide training in all areas of operation.
- Lead the processing areas in the implementation and upgrades of all Treasury systems.
- Sept 1995 – Feb. 1999, Manager, Derivative Products/Assistant Vice President Robobank International New York, NY, Rabo Capital Services Inc. New York
- Set up the Derivative Operations activity for Rabo Capital Services Inc., a subsidiary of Robobank Nederland
- Hired and trained a team of eight operations staff in support of customer driven and market making trading activities of Rabo Capital services
- Manage all hedging activities of the money market and Capital market trading desks
- Manage daily processing – trade input, rate resets, settlements, confirmation, revaluation, and profit and loss forecasting and risk sensitivity analysis and credit exposure reporting.
- Helped in the conversion and implementation of new systems and products.
- Managed projects for new products implementation regarding General ledger, accounting & reporting, risk analysis, P& L, credit exposure, contracts specifications, documentation and legal issues.
- Acted as a liaison between front, middle and back offices to ensure prompt resolution of all issues and effective processing environment.
- Managed project to successfully implement short term interest rate and Fixed Income Derivatives.
- Supervised rapid application developments e.g. Auto Rate Feed and P & L and Risk reporting
- Products include: Future rate agreements, Interest rate swaps, cross currency swaps, asset swaps, currency and interest rate options, credit derivatives, listed futures and options, structured products, Caps, Floors, Collars, Hedged funds, Treasury securities, Repos and Reverse Repos, Time deposits, FX spot and forwards.
- Helped convert Omark database to Devon derivative application
- Wrote operational procedures for the department
- Helped write the policy manual for the branch and Rabo Capital Services, Inc.
- Hired and trained operational staff
- Determined and set up processing and revaluation of new Derivative contracts
- Developed confirmation tracking procedure
- Oct ’93 – Sept ’95,Manager, Strategic Instruments/Assistant Vice President,
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, New York.
- Managed all Derivative processing and documentation Products including Future Rate Agreement, Interest rate swaps, cross currency swaps, asset swaps, currency and interest rate options, listed futures and options, foreign exchange spot and forwards, structured products, caps, floors, collars an hedged funds.
- Supervised daily processing payments, rate resets, trade inputs, verification and all internal and external inquiries
- Coordinated documentation process for all new trades, utilizing ISDA and BBAIRS specification.
- Front and back office position and P/L reconciliation
- SYSTEMS PROJECT MANAGEMENT, Upgrade and conversions:
- Implementation of currency OTC option business (Murex System)
Upgrade from Devon 234.6 to 234.8
- Conversion of Omark to Devon
- Helped convert Midas system to IBS general ledger and processing system.
- Managed the Treasury conversion of Bank Master vers. 5.15 to EMM Bank Master Module. (SCB Ghana)
- Currently leading the Treasury systems upgrade in SCB to OPICS (SCB Ghana)
- Helped upgrade Bank Master modules in Gambia and Cameroon.
- Helped EmTrad Treasury system in Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Gambia
- ACCOUNTING,
- Monitor balancing of sub ledgers to bank’s general ledger
- Maintain static and general ledger mapping for all derivatives and FX transactions
- Dec 1991 – Oct. 1993, ASSISTANT MANAGER, DERIVATIVE PRODUCTS, Union Bank of Switzerland, New York, NY
Products included;
- OTC, listed currency and precious metals options and physicals, future rate agreement, interest rate swaps.
- Setting up operations for special customers, wrote procedures and trained staff.
- Managed back office operations – processing, reconciliation, settlements and deliveries
- Wrote operations procedures and training manuals for the rest of the department.
- Trained operations personnel
- Dec 1986 – Dec1991, Manager, Derivative Products/Assistant Treasurer,
Republic National Bank of New York, NY
- Managed back office operations for over the counter and listed currency and precious metals options, FX and Future Rate Agreements.
- Maintain general ledger with respect to generally accepted accounting practices
- Trained Operations Staff.
- Jan. 1985 – Dec 1986, Internal Auditor, Olsten Accounting Services
- OTHER PROFFESSIONAL COURSES
- Credit and Interest Rate derivatives
- Certificate in Capital Markets
- Interest Rate and other derivatives (University of Toronto)
- International Banking Systems Technical Training
