As the Tanzania Bankers’ Association legal committee chairperson, Citibank’s Tanzanian general counsel Doxa Mbapila is active in driving forward industry dialogue. She has sterling credentials in the financial services sector, having led the establishment of Ecobank Tanzania, and built its in-house legal function from scratch.

During her time working across Citibank, Ecobank and Stanbic, she has participated in some of the nation’s most significant transactions, and it is this aspect of her work, she says, which is particularly important to her. ‘I chose Citibank because it has the most complex banking transactions in the market’, she says. A part of Citibank’s EMEA group, she has been building the country’s free-standing legal function from scratch, since her arrival two years ago.

‘Having a hands-on Tanzanian in-house lawyer has made it easier for the business units and support functions to obtain advice during the product structuring, approval and implementation stage’, she says. ‘I am very much a part of the business’. When it comes to outside counsel, she feels expertise and industry understanding need to be improved in some cases.

‘Based on my experience at Citibank alone, I don’t believe in-house lawyers will get value for their money unless local and international outside counsel take time to understand the Tanzanian banking business and regulatory environment’.