This past Sunday, Citizen TV’s Sunday Live segment, Who Owns Kenya, featured Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi.
The 2012 Ernest and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, was not born in a wealthy family, and in fact had to sell charcoal by the road side to make ends meet.
He attended secondary school courtesy of a government scholarship.
He briefly worked for Trade Bank which later collapsed. In 1993, he was called by Equity Building Society, to help wind it up, as it was making big losses.
Mwangi however had other plans, growing its membership from 27,000 to over 100,0000.
The building society would later become a bank, with its current membership standing at over 8 million.
Being a beneficiary of a government scholarship, Mwangi has given back to the society the same way, through the Equity Bank Wings To Fly program, where he is the patron. Over 10,000 students have benefited.
He has not stopped there. Recently, he gave a personal donation of Sh100 million to Meru University of Science and Technology. He had also given Sh30 million to Africa Leadership Academy based in South Africa.
For a person to give Sh100 million from his own pocket, he must be very wealthy.
Last year, Mwangi made Sh178 million from his shares at the Nairobi Securities Exchange. This is of course minus his other business interests.
Here’s a breakdown of what he owns at the NSE.
3.15% equity bank share – Sh4.18 billion
3.97% Britam – Sh600 million
1.8% Housing Finance – Sh68.26 million
His other business interests outside the NSE bring his net worth to around Sh8 Billion
Here’s Who Owns Kenya.
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