Mr Warui, a long-serving director who has worked for the bank for 21 years, will be taking over from Mr Igathe who leaves at the end of next month.
Mr Igathe will be rejoining his previous employer, Vivo, as executive vice president of sales and marketing for Africa, a newly created position.
Equity Bank #ticker:EQTY, the Kenyan subsidiary of Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed Equity Group, has promoted its director of operations and customer service Gerald Warui to become its managing director.
Mr Warui replaces Polycarp Igathe who is leaving at the end of August to return to his former employer Vivo Energy where he will take up the newly created post of vice president for sales and marketing in Africa.
“The Equity board received and accepted Mr Igathe’s resignation letter today following his eight-month tenure in the role,” the lender said in a statement yesterday.
“To ensure a smooth transition of operations, Mr Igathe will hand over his duties to Mr Warui before his departure at the end of August.”
Mr Warui has served Equity Bank for 21 years. He holds an Executive Master of Business Administration degree from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and is also a Certified Public Accountant CPA (K), and a graduate of Advanced Management Programme offered by IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain.
A career banker, Mr Warui has vast experience spanning over 30 years and has headed operations, customer service and HR within the bank.
Equity Group’s chief executive James Mwangi remains in charge of the holding company and provides overall strategic direction and oversight for the Kenyan operation and other subsidiaries. Equity and other Kenyan banking multinationals adopted this structure and operational system to boost management focus of the subsidiaries and their supervision by their parent companies.
The Kenyan banking unit is the largest for Equity, with more than 70 percent of the company’s assets. It also contributes more than 70 percent of the group’s total earnings.
Other banks that have started or completed similar operational and management changes include KCB Group, I&M Holdings and NIC Group. The changes have featured creation of new non-operating holding companies which own the operating subsidiaries, freeing the parent firms to branch out into non-banking businesses including stock brokerage and property investments.
The restructuring moves allow the banks to overcome the restrictions placed on them under the Banking Act.
Kenyan banks are barred from lending to entities in which their shareholding exceeds 25 per cent, but the holding companies are allowed to source for funding for the subsidiaries which they can fully own.
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