Edward Dutton interviews Dassé Bohui the manager of Oulu’s ‘Moneygram’ International money transfer service.

Dasse Bohui’s business is growing pretty much in line with the growth in Oulu’s expatriate population and with the tide of globalisation.

‘Cameroon, Senegal. . . You Name it!’

‘My customers are Finns with family abroad and foreigners here in Oulu sending money home to Egypt, Cameroon, Afghanistan, Senegal. . . you name it!’
Dassé runs the Oulu branch of Moneygram - an international chain established in 1940 in Minnesota - which facilitates quick, international money transfers. The Oulu office was founded in 2006 and joined worldwide chain in over 170 countries.
“People sending quick money abroad are usually local people who have attachments overseas and foreigners whose family get into cash difficulties at home. There are also businessmen who need cash to pay short term workers,’ said Dasse.
He receives money ‘mainly students living in Oulu and surrounding region; Kokkola, Raahe…… as well as local people, tourists and foreign residents. The process lasts two minutes and the money is ready to be picked it up worldwide.’
‘Maybe people have girlfriends or family that get into cash difficulties abroad. Maybe they want to send to money to family in Africa or China or family in China want to send money to a student here . . . they call me and I wire the money. It’s sorted in just a few minutes.’
Dassé, who has lived in Oulu for eleven years, finds that he conducts his business ‘mainly in English and sometimes Finnish.’
Though running Moneygram’s Oulu office is a quite a new venture for Dassé, who is originally from the Ivory Coast.
He ended up in Oulu because he used to be married to a Finn whom he met while he was working at the Ivorian Embassy in Denmark and she was working for the Red Cross. They married in Denmark and eleven years ago, Dassé came to Finland.

‘Easy to Make a Business’

‘I’ve been all around the country,’ he recalled. ‘In Helsinki, in Pietsaari . . . and then I came to Oulu.’
‘In 1995 I opened an African restaurant in Oulu called Cocotier. We sold African food and maybe Oulu wasn’t quite ready for it then!’ he joked. The African Bar Restaurant gradually became a very popular meeting place for expatriates in Oulu but, ‘Some businessmen saw how popular it was . . . and so they made a better offer for the place!’
‘I felt maybe I didn’t know enough about business, so I went to Business School “Oulu University of Applied Sciences and graduated in 2005 and took the job with Moneygram.’
But despite some setbacks, Dassé is very positive about Oulu as a place for expatriates to establish businesses.
‘It’s easy to make a business nowadays in Oulu because there are more foreigners so there’s more of an atmosphere in which you can do things as a foreigner’ he said.
‘And the City of Oulu has a lot of systems in place to help entrepreneurs such as start-up money and lots of advice. They help you with a business plan . . . they help you to make contacts . . . and it’s a growing city so there are lots of opportunities to set up businesses.’
And Moneygram is also looking to expand in Finland. ‘We’re opening other places as well . . . such as in Kajaani and Helsinki . . . there is a long term plan.’
Dassé has also been promoting his business in the city. ‘We put flyers in foreign schools, we went to the schools. We leafleted language schools. We’ve also been advertised in Six Degrees magazine which is based in Helsinki.’
Dassé has also enjoyed Oulu as a place to live and he has lived in many different European countries; France, Denmark……

‘A Good Atmosphere’

Born in the Ivory Coast, Dassé went to university in Ghana – where he improved his English - and where he also studied at the ‘Paris University Seven’ for few years, because French education is ‘much respected’ in the Ivory Coast. Dassé then lived in Denmark where, ‘I got used to the weather . . . but it was even colder here!’
But Oulu is very different from life in the Ivory Coast and there are a few things that Dassé has missed over the last eleven years.
‘I miss friends and family of course but you can keep in touch on the phone.’ And there are certain kinds of African food that it’s impossible to get in Oulu.
‘There is a kind of African root that you can’t get here,’ said Dasse. ‘And in some ways there’s more solidarity in the Ivory Coast but in some ways there is here because the state is there to help you.’
And Dasse also wanted to emphasise that shop wasn’t just about money transfer but offered other services for expatriates and especially African expatriates.
As I conducted the interview, there was African music playing in the background and video of African dancing being streamed from the internet.
‘We sell phone cards . . . you can ring Bangladesh for 300 minutes for 10 euros. Normally it’s about one euro per minute to ring Bangladesh so it’s a big saving. With some cards it’s about seventy percent off the cost of the call!’
‘We also sell special cosmetics just for dark skin. . . . designed specifically for black skin . . . and you can’t get these in other places in Oulu,’ he said.
Now, Dassé is looking to the future of Moneygram. ‘Soon I will probably take on somebody else to work here . . .’ he said.

Address Torikatu 25 just in front of Oulu job centre.
www.moneygram.com