James mwangi ceo equity bank biography

In this interview, James Mwangi, CEO of Equity Bank, narrates his entrepreneurial journey building one of Kenya’s biggest and most inclusive banks, and discusses his driving mission to give back to Kenyan society through education.

Mwangi begins by discussing the state of the banking sector at the start of his career in the early to mids. He describes the numerous obstacles—from compliance requirements to fees to access to liquidity—that barred many people from opening bank accounts.

James mwangi ceo equity bank biography wikipedia

Moreover, he explains how, after Kenyan independence in , there were very few consumer-facing banks, because the government focused on developing banks aimed at serving state corporations, rather than the Kenyan population. Mwangi experienced the results of this exclusion at first hand during his childhood, when his mother—along with many other people in his village—was deemed ineligible to open a bank account.

By the time he got his first job, Mwangi explains, “I really understood that exclusion fr