Mauro Scarpa, a  Senior Product Engineer Manager at Singapore’s Standard Chartered Bank  · declared winner  of the Standard Chartered Recognition Award 2023 in the category of Never Settle category 

 He answers 10 Questions regarding the victory and how he got involved in the project 

1. When was the Standard Chartered Recognition Award initially launched and for what purpose? And how often does the competition take place?

Mauro: The Standard Chartered Recognition Award was launched a few years back but I  can’t say exactly when. It takes place annually.

      2. How many geographical jurisdictions participate in the competition?

Mauro: It is worldwide.

      3. Please outline the number of Categories involved in the competition.

Mauro: Never Settle, Better Together, Do the right thing, Leadership.

      4. Who are the judges and who appoints them?

Mauro: Judges are: Bill Winters, Jose’s Vinals, and extra judges that can change.

      5. You won in the #neverSettle category with the launch of the  Standard Chartered Shilingi Funds for the #Kenya market. What was your                             involvement in the project? In other words, what is it that you did – either as a team or individually that led to your win? And does the award                   have any monetary reward for you or is it simply symbolic?

Mauro: I was driving the project from a technology standpoint as the delivery head. The reward is only symbolic and gives you access to 6                       months of coaching too.

      6. Who came up with the idea of launching the Fund in Kenya and why settle for this East African State?

  The Kenya Wealth team – SC Shilling funds target the mass market segment – the next emerging affluent and affluent customer. By                              launching an end-to-end solution, it ensured we enabled more people to make informed financial decisions that lead to a better standard of                    living and  economic future of the country.

       7. And why did the Shilingi Funds for the #Kenya market stand out? What sort of impact has the Fund had so far and is it likely to be replicated in              other markets? 

Mauro: This product helps us drive financial inclusion by empowering our people and communities with financial choices through access to                 simple, seamless, and easily accessible investment products. Yes -eventually we will replicate it in other markets.

        8. In the #neverSettle category you stated you were selected from a pool of over 1100 nominations. Which geographies were they drawn from?

 Mauro: worldwide.

        9. Where was the ceremony held and what is so significant about the venue?

Mauro: It was held in the Singapore headquarter, Marina Bay Financial Centre

       10. Standard Chartered Bank’s CEO Bill Winters & Chairman Jose Vinals were in attendance giving the ceremony weighty awe.On the night that

             you won the award did either of them tell something that indelibly stuck in your mind?

Mauro: Jose’ said something very important to me: he basically highlighted that we represent the best employees in the bank and SSCB is lucky to have us in the organization.

Naom Monari is the founder of BENA Care Ltd, an award-winning social enterprise located in Kenya that provides clinical and physiotherapy care services to patients inflicted by life-threatening illnesses from the comfort of their homes.

And verifiably since implementing lessons learned at the   Futuremakers program, an initiative run by the  Best Foreign bank in Kenya the company has witnessed a seismic improvement in service delivery including a substantial increase in its footfall which got a footprint here in 1911 with the first branch opening in Mombasa city. 

The program builds on the success of Standard Chartered Bank’s Seeing is Believing (SiB) initiative that tackled avoidable blindness and visual impairment reaching over 176 million people and raising more than US$  100 million.

Through the Futuremakers program, the bank’s global ambition is to raise US$ 50 million, empower 500,000 adolescent girls, support 100,000 youth towards employability, and build the entrepreneurship capability of 50,000 micro and small businesses.

It turns out meanwhile this organization which also offers a platform for buyers of homecare equipment to access cheap, used, and well-maintained medical equipment like oxygen concentrators, is on a tear.

“ Within two years we have seen the patients we have attended grow from 300 to 6000. We have also improved our efficiencies by setting up a healthcare technology app @benacare, which is a digital platform  that geo maps nurses and physiotherapists drawn from across the country, who then take care of patients from the comfort of their homes. And a positive spin-off is that we have been able to attract new sponsors from outside the country including from Kenya,” says Monari who says the brand name of the company was formed from the name of her two-year-old daughter Beita, now aged eight years including her name Naom.  

The five-year-old Kenyan social enterprise that Monari runs has a dedicated network of more than 9000 healthcare workers that provide affordable, preventative, therapeutic, and rehabilitative care to people suffering from life-limiting illnesses from the comfort of their own homes.

Regina Mukiri, Regional Head, Community Impact and Engagement, Kenya & AME Standard Chartered Bank

Regina Mukiri, Regional Head, Community Impact and Engagement, Kenya and the Middle East, at Standard Chartered Bank, says   31,075 young people in the Kenyan market, who include Monari had by the end of April 2023 benefited from the programme with the lender spending Ksh 189M for the financial year ending 2023.

According to the website of Standard Chartered Bank, the Future Makers initiative supports young people from low-income communities, especially girls and people with visual impairments, to learn new skills and improve their chances of getting a job or starting their own business.

 This is in line with the UN’s SDG Goal 5, which calls for eliminating all forms of discrimination and violence against all women and girls, including those with disabilities. It also stresses the importance of their full and effective participation and equal opportunities in political, economic and public life.

 Mukiri says  the initiative cements Standard Chartered Banks’ commitment  to addressing “prevalent issues that impact our communities” particularly  youth unemployment, and also cements the lender’s credentials  of being here for good.” 

 “We believe that social and economic inclusion leads to more prosperous and sustainable communities. We believe everyone should be able to contribute to and benefit from, sustainable economic growth in their community. We promote greater economic inclusion through Futuremakers by Standard Chartered, our global initiative to tackle inequality. Futuremakers supports young people from low-income households, particularly girls and people with visual impairments, through community programmes focused on education, employability, and entrepreneurship,” says Mukiri.

In what was dubbed the first phase, the initiative was initially launched in June 2019 and rests on four pillars, namely  Education, Employability, and Entrepreneurship.

The education pillar sees girls being equipped with the confidence, knowledge, and skills that would lead them to become economic leaders in their families and communities.

While the employability column develops opportunities that support young people to become job-ready.

In the entrepreneurship plank, the bank provides support, mentorship opportunities, and access to resources, such as funding and banking products and services, to female entrepreneurs in the technology sector.

In the first phase of the program, the Bank equipped over 4800 students drawn from five local universities with employability and life skills. The universities included Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology, Kenyatta University, USIU-Africa University, Multimedia University, and Zetech University.

During the second phase which began in  April 2022, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya injected Kshs 96.9 million, to run for two years targeting 790 young jobseekers with disabilities, including 150 jobseekers with visual impairment. 

Kellen Kariuki, Standard Chartered Kenya’s Board Chair says the African continent has the youngest population globally, with 70% in sub-Saharan Africa falling below the age of 30. And that the burgeoning youth population presents a massive opportunity for economic growth – but only if the new generation is empowered to realize their full potential.

“ It is particularly important for these young individuals to be included in decision-making, accorded the right work opportunities, and to innovate. Sadly, the high levels of inequality in education and the job market have presented an almost perpetual challenge,” she says.

Indeed unemployment remains a big issue.

According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), approximately 10 to 12 million young Africans enter the labour market annually where only 3 million formal jobs are created by African countries. This leaves most youth unemployed or forced to settle for low-paid and low-productive jobs in the informal sector to make ends meet.

In Kenya, the situation is dire as official statistics show a third of Kenyan youth, eligible to work are jobless.

Enter  Maureen Awino, another beneficiary of the program. She’s the founder of Modesh Bakers in Kisumu City. She says that she’s now able to run her company effectively.

“I’ve expanded my product line to offer different types of cookies. I  also trained 80 women last year. This has enabled me to increase my sales from 150 packets of cookies to 3,000 packets weekly,” says Awino.

Standard Chartered Bank set out to fundraise and donate US$ 50 million for Futuremakers between 2019 and 2023, funds that would empower the next generation to learn, earn and grow. In response to COVID-19, the lender committed a further US$ 25 million to Futuremakers to support economic recovery for young people impacted by the pandemic.

It achieved the US$ 75 million target set for 2023, a year earlier, with additional donations made during the pandemic. In 2022, the Bank fundraised US$ 14.7 million for Futuremakers including Group donations, bringing the total fundraised from 2019 to 2022 to US$ 78.7 million.

The program is part of a global initiative to tackle inequality by promoting greater economic inclusion across global markets by empowering young people to unleash their full potential and lift their participation in the economy.

“What I loved about the programme was that we were provided with female entrepreneurs of note who took us through the ropes of how to excel in entrepreneurship and how to navigate the business cycle. We were also provided with  US$ 10,000 as seed funding,” says Monari who began Benacare in 2017, as a student nurse at Gatundu Level Five Hospital, in Central Kenya after witnessing the growing number of patients that stayed in the hospital receiving non-urgent medical care, a phenomenon that inspired her to introduce the home nursing service.

“We are transforming society through our Futuremakers programs that include our GOAL project, Youth Employability programs, and Entrepreneurship programs such as Women in Tech. At Standard Chartered, we are committed to supporting the youth and women by creating opportunities to support them when they embark on entrepreneurship, Joyce Kibe, Head of Corporate Affairs, Brand and Marketing Kenya and East Africa, says.

1. Was the  Equity Bank Group the first within East Africa to be recognized or has there been a previous mention in the past from the geographical area?

There have been previous iterations of Kenya’s 25 Most Valuable Brands and Africa’s Most Valuable Brands (50-150), where Equity Bank has been mentioned along with other Kenyan banks.

2. How much value did you place on the Equity Group Brand and what does the figure mean for the overall business of the Group?

The Brand value came at KES 65 billion Which is 39% of the value of the business (market Cap) as of the 1st of January KES 167,929.00 is the market cap.

3. Have you independently done any research to ascertain which is the priciest brand within East Africa and two, generally within the African continent, and what figure are the brands worth? And in the world which brand tops and how much is it worth?

Yes, we have.

Please see Kenya Report on Brandirectory.com

4. Specifically how many banks showed interest in participating in the competition in 2023 and from which regions were they disproportionately drawn from?

Brand Finance assesses all listed banking brands independently. It’s free from bias and no brand needs to enter. It’s more about merit
rather than a peer rating

5. And does your organisation use the same metrics irrespective of which geographical jurisdictions a corporate brand originates from or are companies from certain regions given preferential treatment say because their economies are adjudged as being poor or emerging?

We use the same metrics for all banking brands globally. Scale is reflected in Brand Value, but Brand Strength accounts for scale bias.

6. What does a ranking mean or do to a business?

It reflects the success and or failures of the brand in question. The values and rankings can be used for many different reasons by management
from strategic, to ROI measurement to communication spending and its effectiveness in education, etc.

7. Why should brand ranking matter?

See above

8. And can any sort of organization participate or should a company have attained certain metrics -eg capital capitalization, number of employees, and so on to engage in this ranking competition?

Any listed organisation.

9. Please indicate what a brand needs to do to join for example the Brand Finance Banking 500 ranking.

See above.

10. And disproportionately within the African continent where do most participants come from?  The East, West, North, and South African regions, and why do you think that is the case?

South Africa. Scale.

11. Which African brands beat the Equity Bank Group brand in 2023 and what cachet did they possess that denied the Equity Bank Group pole position?

See the report on Brandirectory.com

12. And why should the world believe that Brand Finance is authoritative in carrying out this business of branding businesses compared say to its peers?

We are the only firm with 2 ISO accreditations (ISO 10668 and 10671), we have the largest database of brand valuations in the world, and conduct a global market research programme for over 4,500 brands. We work with and our work is audited by all the big 4 accounting firms. We are members of the MASB, ICAEW, and CIMA organisations.