Joshua Oigara Elected Kenya Bankers Association Chairman

By Soko Directory Team / Published June 29, 2018 | 7:17 am

Members of the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) have elected Kenya Commercial Bank’s Group Chief Executive Officer Mr. Joshua Oigara as the new Chairman of the Governing Council and re-elected NIC Bank’s Managing Director Mr. John Gachora for another term as Council Vice Chairman.

The new leadership will serve for a one year period. Mr. Oigara takes over from Standard Chartered Bank’s Chief Executive Officer and Area General Manager for East Africa, Mr. Lamin Manjang. Mr. Manjang, who has served as KBA Chairman for two years, was recognized as being instrumental in steering the industry during the tumultuous period following the enactment of the Banking (Amendment) Act, which introduced price controls on bank interest rates.

Notable developments under Mr. Manjang’s leadership include the launch of Integrated Payment Services Limited (IPSL), established to provide a secure, fast and efficient 24/7 bank-to-bank money transfer platform under the PesaLink brand.

To date, 30 KBA member banks offer the PesaLink service, which moves more than 100 million shillings in value per day.

Since its launch in June 2017, PesaLink has facilitated 68 billion shillings worth of transactions across the banking network. Most recently, Mr. Manjang led the KBA Council to adopt higher standards of governance including taking on policies that will see the industry address the areas of fraud and money laundering.

His tenure also saw the industry train more than 28 thousand bank employees on the role the sector plays in promoting Kenya’s sustainable development under the Sustainable Finance Initiative.

In his acceptance address to members, Mr. Oigara acknowledged that the interest rate cap has remained one of the industry’s greatest challenges over the last two years, adding that it will be an area that the KBA Council will continue to engage on.

“We have given proposals to make credit more accessible, and the Inuka SME Program, particularly the 30 billion shillings fund, will be an important component of the industry’s response to concerns raised by our stakeholders,” he said.

The new KBA Chairman also committed that industry players would continue supporting IPSL in rolling out PesaLink and other FinTech innovations that promote industry efficiency and enhance the user experience for consumers of financial services.

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