- He has led Equity – initially technically insolvent – to become a publicly listed and integrated banking and financial services group upholding global corporate governance standards.
- Some of his family’s notable contributions include $4 million (Sh450 million) donated to the Covid-19 response.
Image: FILE
James Mwangi is one of Africa’s renowned thought leaders, a disruptive entrepreneur and a philanthropist.
It was no surprise when Star readers selected the CEO of Equity Group Holdings Plc as its annual Person of the Year.
A champion of socioeconomic transformation, Mwangi, 58, believes individuals and societies have the potential to solve their challenges if they are given the opportunity and access to resources.
Equity is the largest financial company by market capitalisation in Eastern and Central Africa.
Raised by a hard-working widowed mother, Grace, Mwangi as one of seven siblings witnessed the daily struggles of his family and community to eke a living.
He grew up in Nyagatugu village in what is now Murang’a county.
This inspired him to become the first in his village to attend university. He was determined to strive for inclusion, provide access to opportunities and empower people transform their lives.
Mwangi left a lucrative job in a leading bank in 1991 to join Equity Building Society, a technically insolvent financial institution. It was ranked 66 out of 66 and had been threatened with closure by the regulator.
He pushed for formal financial access for the 96 per cent of Kenyans excluded and considered ‘unbankable’.
His mother taught him the importance of discipline, hard work, giving back to society and humility. These values have shaped the culture and brand of Equity. Mwangi conveys these values in his mentoring and coaching.
The institution has differentiated itself through a unique emotional connection with its customers, team spirit among staff founded on the ‘power of one’, passion for work.
SAVINGS-LED REVOLUTION
The Equity brand is known for boldly pursuing its vision of empowering people.
As a champion of financial inclusion, Mwangi is credited with democratising financial access by removing entry barriers in Kenya and the region.
He pioneered a savings-led microfinance revolution. He gave the largely excluded unbanked households, businesses, enterprises and communities the opportunity for broader economic participation.
As a serial entrepreneur, Mwangi established geographical and business line subsidiaries in banking, investment, insurance, telecoms, fintech and health.
He has led Equity to become a publicly listed and integrated banking and financial services group upholding global corporate governance standards.
Equity has made investments in technology and innovation, accelerating growth across Africa and building a client base of more than 14.2 million in six countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda).
It has a representative office in Ethiopia and a total asset base of more than $9.3 billion.
Equity Group has one of the most extensive physical and digital distribution networks in the region, with millions leveraging electronic, cards, mobile, and internet self-service capabilities.
MwangI has earned the trust of many of the world’s top socially responsible investors, foundations, development financial institutions, development agencies and strategic alliance partners.
He established the Equity Group Foundation, the social arm of the Group, in 2008. Mwangi is executive chairman.
It has committed $447 million for social impact.
EGF has offered 36,000 secondary school scholarships to gifted but disadvantaged children.
Mwangi mentors and coaches young people and is committed to transition to tertiary education. Many join the Equity Leadership Programme of 14,000 scholars who have joined university; 633 have joined leading global learning institutions.
EGF has provided a 13- three-year entrepreneurship and business development training to more than 109,000 entrepreneurs.
It supported 638,000 subsistence farmers entering agribusiness.
The foundation also supports Equity Leadership scholars pursuing medicine in university.
Thirty-three Equity Afia clinics have recorded more than 216,000 cumulative patient visits.
Equity has supported planting of about 1.4 million trees and has distributed 218,000 clean energy products.
It runs a social safety net programme for 3.3 million households, with a cumulative disbursement of $740 million in cash transfers.
Mwangi has served on boards and as advisors to the Global Advisory Council for VISA Inc., the Global Advisory Council for Mastercard, the Clinton Global Initiative and the G8 New Alliance For Food Security and Nutrition.
Others are President Barack Obama’s Initiative for Global Development, the G20 Advisory Board of Agriculture and Initiative for Global Development and The Global Agenda Council on New Economic Thinking of the World Economic Forum.
He has been instrumental in shaping global development policies by serving on the UN Advisory Groups on Inclusive Finance, as well as on Global Sustainability.
He also served as an adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Mwangi is on the Economic Advisory Board to the President of IFC (International Finance Corporation), the Advisory Network to the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy and the Nairobi Advisory Board of Columbia Global Centres.
Others are Yale University President’s Council on International Activities, the Inaugural Board of African Leadership Academy. He has chaired the steering committee of the Young African Leaders Initiative Regional Leadership Center, East Africa.
He is a member of UNDP’s African Influencers for Development (AI4Dev), private sector AfroChampions initiative, and a board member of Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa.
Mwangi served on the technical team that formulated Kenya’s Vision 2030, the long-term development strategy blueprint, from 2003 to 2007, and became the founding chair of Kenya’s Vision 2030 Delivery Board from 2007 to 2019.
He is a member of the Presidential National Task Force on the Kenya Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund and chairman of its health committee.
He is a frequent guest lecturer at Stanford, Columbia, MIT, Harvard, IESE-Strathmore, and Lagos Business School, where Equity Group has been the focus of more than 30 case studies in leading global institutions.
Mwangi has three children.
Some of his family’s notable contributions include $4 million (Sh450 million) to support the Covid-19 response in Kenya, Rwanda and DRC.
Mwangi has donated $500,000 to his local village school, Nyagatugu Secondary School, and $300,000 each to both the African Leadership Academy, South Africa and Church House in Uganda.