Oigara bags regional banker of the year trophy

Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) boss Joshua Oigara has been named the 2016 banker of the year at the third Banker Africa East Africa Awards held in Nairobi.

KCB bagged three awards: best commercial bank in Kenya, best retail bank and best commercial bank in East Africa.

Chief executive and President of CRDB Bank Tanzania, Charles Kimei, received the lifetime achievement award in recognition of his more than 30 years of achievement in the financial services sector.

“Each year, the Banker Africa East Africa Awards identifies and reward excellence in financial services. We aim to promote best practice and offer recognition to the key players working to help create a prosperous diversified future for the region’s economies,” said Robin Amlôt, chief executive officer of CPI Financial, the publishers of Banker Africa magazine.

The winners were chosen by more than 23,500 voters in East Africa, the largest number in the three-year history of the awards.

Among the big winners were Bank of Khartoum which won two awards, Barclays, CBA Group, Co-op Bank of Kenya, DTB, Ecobank, Equity Bank and NIC Bank.

Public confidence

Different units of StanChart and Stanbic also won, with the group holdings taking three awards each.

A total of 24 institutions across six countries — Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Sudan and Ethiopia — shared 37 corporate awards.

The Kenya Bankers Association CEO Habil Olaka said that bankers’ focus should be on winning back public confidence after the Kenyan banking sector was hit by turmoil in the past one year.

“It is no longer business as usual because our customers are losing faith in banks and we have a duty to rebuild trust in the industry and the banking institution,” Mr Olaka said.

Three lenders, Dubai, Imperial and Chase banks have been put under receivership in recent months over poor governance, insider lending, fraud and operating outside regulations.

Chase Bank has since been re-opened even as the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) is embroiled in court cases with the owners of the other two banks.

CBK chairman Mohamed Nyaoga said good governance will lead to improved financial reporting, compliance, consumer protection, profitability and higher dividends for shareholders.