Standard Chartered Bank has appointed Nigerian banker Dalu Ajene as chief executive for its Africa operations, replacing Kariuki Ngari, who had taken on the continental role in addition to his position as chief executive of the lender’s Kenyan unit.
Mr Ajene moves into the Africa leadership role from his position as chief executive of StanChart Nigeria, which he assumed in April 2024, marking a sudden transition into a broader multinational mandate.
The leadership change sees Mr Ngari relinquish the Africa CEO role less than two years after he was handed expanded responsibilities as managing director and chief executive for Kenya and Africa in April 2024.
StanChart said Mr Ajene will also assume responsibility as head of coverage for Africa, placing him in charge of the bank’s client relationships and business development across the region.
“Dalu holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School and is reputed as a leader passionate about driving a culture of high-performance centred around people empowerment to deliver best-in-class service to clients and robust financial outcomes for stakeholders,” said the lender in a statement.
Before joining StanChart, Mr Ajene served as chief executive of Rand Merchant Bank Nigeria, adding to a career spanning more than 25 years in the financial services sector.
Following his exit from the continental role, Mr Ngari now shifts attention to solely focus on steering the local business, having served as StanChart Bank Kenya’s CEO since 2019 and overseeing the lender’s local operations for over half a decade.
The Kenyan unit reported a 38.2 percent drop in net profit for the nine months ended September 2025, with earnings falling to Sh9.7 billion from Sh15.8 billion over a similar period the previous year.
The decline was largely driven by a Sh2.7 billion one-off charge booked under staff expenses to settle a pension claim awarded by the Supreme Court to former employees after a legal battle that lasted 16 years. The bank said it had set aside a cumulative Sh2 billion fund during the litigation period to address erroneous pension calculations affecting the appellants.
Beyond the pension-related cost, the lender’s performance was weighed down by weaker interest income from loans, as well as declining forex earnings. Interest income from customer loans fell by 21.3 percent to Sh13.6 billion as the bank’s loan book contracted and lending rates declined, limiting earnings from private-sector credit.
The loan portfolio stood at Sh146.3 billion as at September 2025, down from Sh151.2 billion a year earlier, pointing to reduced appetite for borrowing among businesses and households.
Income from lending to other banks fell by Sh2.25 billion, or 44.5 percent, to Sh2.8 billion amid elevated liquidity levels in the banking sector that dampened interbank borrowing.
Foreign exchange trading income also dropped by 58.9 percent to Sh2.7 billion from Sh6.6 billion, as relative stability in the shilling reduced opportunities for banks to earn trading revenue.
By September, StanChart had issued a profit warning, signalling that its net profit for the full year ended December 2025 would fall by at least 25 percent compared to 2024, underscoring the scale of the pressure on earnings.
