Equity Group has appointed Uganda subsidiary managing director Samuel Kirubi as the Group's chief operations officer to help scale up the lender's processes and services through technology.
Mr Kirubi is taking over from John Wilson who left the position in 2019. The move will see Mr Kirubi leave the position of managing director at Equity Bank Uganda to head the Group operations at the head office in Nairobi.
“As Equity rolls outs its ambitious Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan with the aim of scaling its customer base to 100 million by 2025, this calls for the scaling up of our operations, footprint and distribution infrastructure driven by technologically driven digitisation and virtualisation of the bank,” Equity CEO James Mwangi said.
‘’The Board has expressed confidence in Kirubi’s capability, experience and deep knowledge of the transition culture in taking up this responsibility at a critical time of the bank’s growth and expansion.”
The Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan is Sh732.48 billion ($6 billion) private sector-focused stimulus package announced in March.
The programme is eying the region with funds that will be offered in form of blended financing of short-term overdrafts, medium-term loans and credit facilities that require long-term project and development financing.
The firm is hoping to reach five million MSMEs and 25 million individual borrowers in the next 5 years.
During his tenure, Mr Kirubi helped turn the Uganda subsidiary from a loss-making unit to the fifth most profitable bank in Uganda and the third most profitable subsidiary of Equity Group after Kenya and DRC.
In his place, the board has appointed Mr Anthony Kituka, the current executive director as the Managing Director.
Mr Kituka has been working under Kirubi since 2015 providing a smooth transition of leadership in the subsidiary.
Mr Kirubi joined Equity Bank in 2001 and has gained vast experience in operations, marketing and customer service.
He previously served as a chief operations officer at Equity Bank South Sudan in 2009.
He became the first Managing Director of Equity Bank Rwanda in 2011 before being assigned to turn around Equity Bank operations in Uganda in the same position in 2015.
“We congratulate Samuel Kirubi for his excellent track record of leading teams in different countries. This experience has prepared him well to oversee Group operations in the different markets and we are confident that he will play his role effectively as the Group rolls out an ambitious Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan,” said Equity Group chairman Isaac Macharia said.
