Equity named best Kenyan lender and KCB’s Oigara top CEO

Equity Bank has been named the best lender in Kenya at this year’s Think Business Banking Awards, beating KCB and Barclays to second and third positions respectively.

KCB Group boss Joshua Oigara was crowned the industry’s chief executive of the year due to his efforts to help depositors of troubled lenders such as Imperial Bank and Chase Bank access their cash.

This year’s awards were dominated by homegrown banks which have in recent times clawed market share from foreign-owned lenders.

“Chase is now open again and I want to pay tribute to the governor of the CBK (Central Bank of Kenya) Patrick Njoroge and KCB Group CEO Joshua Oigara for doing everything possible to have Chase Bank re-open in the shortest time possible,” said Ochieng Oloo, the founder of Think Business Ltd.

Equity Bank was also voted the best lender in SME banking, retail banking, microfinance and agency. KCB scooped top honours in mortgage finance and product marketing.

DTB won in the asset finance category, product innovation, and customer service. Citibank was named the best mid-tier bank in Kenya while Bank of India was the best tier III lender, according to the Think Business Banking Awards 2016.

The annual awards come at a time when Kenya’s banking sector is facing a storm caused by the collapse of three small lenders — Dubai, Imperial and Chase banks — in the past nine months.

Think Business has previously graded Imperial Bank as the best lender overall, raising queries over the rigour put towards selecting award winners.

“I am not going to put a disclaimer about whose responsibility it is to verify that figures published publicly reflect the true position of the bank or any company,” said Mr Oloo, reacting to the concerns.

Kenya’s banking industry has witnessed a huge spike in sour loans, forcing CBK to require lenders to make higher loan loss provisions which saw six banks post surprise full-year losses despite being profitable as at the end of the third quarter.