A year after exiting as chief executive officer (CEO) of Family Bank, Rebecca Mbithi has made a comeback to the banking sector.
NCBA Bank Kenya last week announced that Ms Mbithi, a lawyer and accountant with over two decades of experience, had joined the lender as a non-executive director. The appointment returns her to the boardroom where key decisions happen.
She will be part of a team of independent advisors charged with providing strategic guidance and monitoring executive management, to help the bank achieve its goals.
An avid recreational marathoner who has run in at least five of the world’s major marathons, including New York, Chicago, London, and Berlin marathons, she now begins a new race in the banking sector where her fingerprints are still visible.
But her contribution goes beyond the banking sector. She had served in senior leadership positions at the Kenya Tea Development Agency Limited, Rift Valley Railways Kenya Limited and Rift Valley Railways Uganda Limited, before joining Family Bank, where she rose from the position of company secretary and director of legal services to become the CEO.
At Family Bank where she had been since 2015, she was hailed as having been instrumental in strategy and business development, capital and debt raising, risk management, compliance, and controls, knitting together her legal and accounting mind to grow the bank.
“She steered the Bank to steady growth with our key performance indicators (deposits, loan, total assets, and profitability) increasing by 100 percent over the last five years,” Family Bank said of her when she exited in November last year.
She became the CEO about two years after Family Bank had laid off part of staff and closed some branches in cost-cutting efforts, but quickly helped the lender find its footing with net profit growing 3.9 times to Sh949.8 million in the financial year ended December 2019.
In the same year, Ms Mbithi ended a five-year dividend drought by declaring Sh0.24 per share totaling Sh308.9 million. She followed up with one for three bonus shares in 2020, followed by a Sh0.62 per share dividend in 2022.
Among the standout achievements cited was the lender’s 2021 corporate bond that raised Sh4.42 billion, surpassing the Sh3 billion that had been targeted. The lead transaction advisors were NCBA Investment Bank and Genghis Capital.
Her passion for fundraising continues. She currently serves as a director and consultant on the board of Across Frontiers Global Limited, which offers a broad range of transaction and financial advisory services, particularly in fundraising, capital markets, and structured finance.
Back to the running tracks, her name is among the few Kenyan corporate executives who have run the major marathons. The likes of David Thuo, Felicita Kagwanja, James Waliaula, Edward Mungai, Judy Nyaruai Muhoro, Jackson Ndegwa, Caroline Ongeri, and Avani Shah are also on this list.
Ms Mbithi has inspired many people within and outside the C-Suite into recreational running—an activity that many use not just for fitness but also to champion different courses including equality and fundraising for medical bills.
One of the C-suite figures who took interest in running, thanks to Ms Mbithi is Stanbic Bank of Kenya and South Sudan CEO Joshua Oigara who plans to try out a 21-kilometre race.
“Initially I wanted to run 42 kilometres because I really wanted to run the Boston Marathon. One person that used to challenge me a lot was Rebecca Mbithi,” Mr Oigara told this publication last year.
Ms Mbithi holds a Master of Business Administration Degree from the United States International University – Africa, a Global CEO programme Certificate from Strathmore University and a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Nairobi.
In addition, she holds a diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law and is an active member of the Law Society of Kenya. This is alongside other qualifications including certified public accountant and certified public secretary.
