1.What is Standard Chartered Bank Kenya best known for? Out of the 42 registered banks in the country. Where does it have its economies of scale and where do you want to take it? 

We are known for our digital expertise and our innovation. Our underlying platform for serving our clients both on the corporate side and our retail clients is superior technology. That is how our clients describe us and they expect us to be on the cutting edge of technology. 

Our bank is on the phone. For instance, our retail clients, it has over 70 – 80 services that an individual can do on the phone. On the Corporate side, we have our platform called Straight to Bank.  When it comes to digitization and innovation, we are on the top. 

Second, we are also known as a connector bank. We are the only international bank operating in Europe, America, and Asia. The bank connects by bringing capital into Kenya to support clients who want to expand into Kenya or out of Kenya, in Africa or Asia, and also supporting governments. That’s our niche and that’s where we play. 

2. You took over the reins of leadership in 2019, since then, the bank has implemented strategies that have witnessed an increase in women’s representation in senior management positions. Gender parity on the board has improved from 23% in 2019 to 45% currently with women at the management level and across… and marginally 45% – 54% respectively. What triggered the move and what sort of impact has it had on the impressions of the bank?    

I believe we are a bank that believes very strongly in inclusion. Diversity and inclusion are part of our ethos. It’s part of our culture. It’s routinely said that 52% of our population is female. Kenya is half half, it’s 52:49 or 51:50 there. If you think about it from a business perspective then it doesn’t make sense to exclude such a big part of humanity in the organization. 

Today about 57% of our total population is female. But when you start going into the more senior ranks, women’s fingers start dropping. So we have to take very concerted efforts to ensure that women are represented equally well. Our ambition is to be at 50:50 whether it’s at the rank and file, senior management, the board, or the executive membership, our goal is to be at 50:50. We have work to do especially in senior management.

At the board level, we are OK, in fact, it’s 54% in terms of representation. So it’s very concerted and how has this helped? You see the best of our female colleagues bringing their best to work and then they stay on… so there is competition and you are not losing any talent because talent is not confined to the male gender alone.

Talent is in both genders so when you deliberately work to ensure both genders have equal opportunities and they can rise to the top of the organization then an organization such as Standard Chartered Bank Kenya is able to reap positive dividends. 

3. Standard Chartered has been in the local market since 1911. What has been its mission in Kenya? 

We have been part of the transformation of Kenya when you think of what Kenya was in 1911… There is a book I have been reading about Kenya in those days so you can imagine when you talk about the transformation, when you talk about facilitating trade, when you talk about commerce, that is what has been at the heart of Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya.

We are a bank that has been known for facilitating trade. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity within our unique diversity. And this is something that makes us proud of our heritage. I meet clients who tell me they are grandparents. And that they opened their accounts in the 1930s, some in the 1950s, so we have been part of what has happened in Kenya in those years.

The transformation that you have been seeing, we are a big part of that. Finance is what moves an economy, it’s the oil that moves an economy, so for us to have been there for that long, and we continue to be there in different shapes and forms. It is something that we are really very proud of and we will continue to be here for a long time to come. 

4. Standard Chartered has been a signatory to the United Nations Compact since January 2019. How has the local unit benefitted from being a signatory? 

I see you did your research. Where did you dig that out from? That is the global compact…

I think when you look at the aspirations of the United Nations, and when I look at the SDGs, there are 23 of them. In terms of how the world can become a much better place for both men and womankind, it was imperative for us to have been a local signatory.

First of all, I serve on the board and I am the deputy chair, which helps especially when you are helping the younger SMEs, and the much smaller SMEs to really have a set of values that they can leverage on, allowing them to align themselves with international organizations such as ourselves.

These things are there because we will always go for the global cause, but when you come to the institutions in Kenya, the SMEs for instance, need somebody to help them in areas of say governance, or anti-corruption. 

So that is what the difference has been in our role as being in the global compact locally and also in my role as the deputy chair, it helped me help a lot of the local organizations in the local chapters who do not have that global scale so that they can be able to do some of the things they do.

There are a lot of companies that we have helped in matters of sustainability and now they are able to define what it means for them and this allows them to have Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of how they can have very clear codes of conduct, how they can have clear KPIs they can measure to.

5. On 13th June 2022, The Lender launched its first Sustainability Impact report highlighting efforts made to accelerate stewardship towards the environment widening economic participation between and within communities and addressing the growing imbalances brought about by globalization. To date what milestones can you report as having been achieved as a result of this initiative?

Also, you indicated the bank would raise 10% of its revenue from sustainable resources. With the initiative pegged on the bank’s sustainable economic growth perspective, which has two client business segments, how are we doing on this front?

First of all, it was something that we are really proud of in terms of launching that sustainability report. It’s the first time that it has been done within the Standard Chartered group, so it’s something we are very proud of. My colleagues in corporate affairs, brand, and marketing are extremely proud of that milestone. 

Secondly, it helps you audit yourself. You see, these are goals you set for yourself and there is nothing important in life as you know as setting your own goals. And then you look back and say: did I manage to deliver or hit the goals that I set for myself? So that sustainability report helped us reflect and actually go through and see where we have fallen short and what we need to do, what more we need to do and that helps. Just to give you a couple of examples.

If I look at one of the areas that we worked very hard at since I became CEO it’s when we talk about our supplier base. We talk about women’s businesses, I mean women-owned businesses.

There are very few organizations that can actually tell you how many suppliers to their organizations are women-owned businesses. So we established a baseline. Let’s go through our database and see all suppliers, how many of those are singularly women-owned businesses. And when we talk about women-owned businesses we mean businesses owned by women with  51% and over ownership – not tokenism, not Mr. and Mrs.

They have to hold the company majorly. Previously it was very bad for it was rated at only 17% of our entire supplier base. So we spent most of 2019 to establish the baseline. 

The second line we looked at is, what is our spend in that 17%. It was a paltry 2% of our entire spending and you know we spend a lot of money. And then we set ourselves a target. We said we want to hit 30% of our suppliers by 2024 to be women and we need to increase our 10%. At least we move from 2 – 6 %  because we need to do a lot more to get to 10%.

So those are the kind of milestones with key deliverables that we set for ourselves and that we wanted to hit and be able to look back and say, when we hit this milestone, let’s set the bigger one. 

There are also some internal ones that we have done. When I look in terms of energy consumption, we have reduced our energy consumption by about 51% across the network. In this building ( headquarters) we recycle 99% – 100% of all the waste in this building. And that is something we are really proud of. And then when you look at water, in this building all our water is recycled, rainwater is harvested, when you go to our bathrooms, that is the water we use. 

So these are very specific actions we have taken for ourselves. 

And also we are single-use plastic-free. So you will not find a bottle of plastic in any of these buildings. And that has extended to 17 of our local branches. These are very clear milestones that we have put. We told ourselves that we know the damage plastic is causing to the environment and therefore we cannot on one hand be talking about the plastic scourge and then go ahead to using plastic. 

So these are some of the milestones we have delivered and we are very happy. And we see that the way we are going we should be carbon neutral by 2025. It’s very deliberate, very clear metrics, something we are tracking very closely. 

6. Prior to your current role you were global head of retail distribution for Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore and you were instrumental in formulating global strategies in building the future for retail branches and … through digitization as well as revision of branch models. How has this background helped you steer the local community here?

I think one of the things that really helped. There is a Kikuyu proverb that states that a child who does not leave the mother’s homestead thinks that the mother is the best cook. And that’s what this taught me. When I left here, I used to think I used to be world-class until the day I left Kenya and worked in Singapore for 3 years. Now I’m very circumspect in using that word.

World Class is really different. I mean just to give you an example, I watched Singapore Formula 1 and then you see, then you look back and remember those guys are driving cars at 300 kph on a street and they take corners, that’s world-class driving. I mean how do you drive a car at 300 kph for 2hrs? And you are able to navigate? Think about driving between Kenyatta Avenue, Koinange Street, Latema, just within Nairobi, and within the city center and you are moving at speeds of 300. 

So those kinds of things start making you reflect and say wow. World Class is a different thing again. But also it showed me how far we can go. There are some things we do very well in Kenya for instance Mpesa was a really good innovation.

But there are also a lot more things there to learn. It allowed me to see what scale is in terms of when you see how huge those economies are in that part of the world. It allowed me to explore Asia a lot more. So you learn a lot about Asia and the transformation taking place there and it allowed me to see what is possible not only in Kenya but within Africa.

But we have a long way to go and so if we lay the foundation correctly, then there is no reason why we cannot be able to get at least where Asia has gotten; some of the countries in Asia, when you think about whether its Singapore itself, whether its South Korea, this has happened within a lifetime, in one generation.

Not something that has happened over 100s of years like in Europe. Those are the insights it gave me. And then working and meeting different cultures. When I was there, I spent a lot more time in Asia itself. I said look I know Africa and the Middle East. For many years I have been here, let me spend time in markets that I don’t know.

So I spent a lot of time in markets like Korea, Hong Kong which are some of our biggest markets, Singapore itself, and  India. And that gave me another perspective. Convenience is at the heart of it. Technology is what is going to be the biggest enabler. But also the role that banks and financial institutions can play to really make a big difference and be the voice of good in any of those markets.

So it was an exciting outing, challenging but good. It made me get out of my comfort zone. We use that word again loosely, it’s good to get out of your comfort zone and go to a place you are not comfortable with. 

7) Early this January a local newspaper reported the NCBA group and Absa Bank Kenya had risen and overtaken Standard Chartered Bank Kenya in the market capitalization ranking of the Kenya business index. Does this metric matter to you?

No, it doesn’t. What does that mean? It doesn’t mean anything. I think for me the most important thing is that we are very clear about what we need to do. Very clear on our strategy and we have routinely delivered very good financial outcomes. When you look at the dividend we declared of Ksh, 22, I think in total, the shareholders are very happy. The number of shareholders who I meet, some I do not know, just tell me to thank you for that dividend.

That’s what is important. It’s not about where our ranking is in the market cap. Market capitalization is a factor of the share price and availability of the shares and we know that Standard Chartered shares are very much sought after. They are not as available as so they are very much sought after…. So hardly anyone ever sells. 

So it’s not a metric that we even think of. You are the one who is telling me. We never look at it. For me it’s about whether I  am serving my client, whether are we meeting their needs, whether are we able to solve their problems, and whether are we able to, when it comes to shareholders, give a dividend. I think we are. I don’t know why you did not look at the dividend payout… It’s one of the best…. It was the highest.

There was a report that was released yesterday by Standard Investments Bank. It rates us very highly.  

8)Standard Chartered Bank integrated its mobile banking platform into the Airtel money payment system in Kenya and it’s the only bank in Africa to have a real-time, online integration payment system with a telco with no human intervention. Is this statement correct and if so, what is so special about the system? 

  I think first of all, when you look at what is happening today, the consumer really wants to do things digitally. Yes, you hear there is an argument that people want to visit branches, but not our clients. We can see from the statistics that it is clear that people do not want to visit branches. And this happened during the  Covid era. Covid accelerated it.

And then our investment into the digital platforms both for the retail and corporate clients, has made it extremely convenient to do whatever you want to do without visiting a branch. 

When you and I were in school, we had to create time to go to the bank. Today you don’t have to. You could be in the middle of something and you are also doing your banking. You could send someone to do something and they send you the till number and you make the payment.  That’s the convenience we are giving our clients.

We are giving our client no reason to think about whether I need to think about cash, I mean I just traveled, I’ve just come back. I never thought for one minute to get dollars. There was a time when traveling abroad when you visited the bank to get dollars. Now you just get into the plane and go because your account is there with you. I was thousands of miles away and I was making payments in my shamba in shags.

They did not know where I was. They were sending me a message ‘Please I need Ksh. 8000 to pay for the labor’. I just go to the Mpesa app, I give the guy Ksh 8000, he doesn’t know where I am. Such convenience. Before you would have met them, sat down, told them this arrangement, left them the cash, then everyone knows you’ve gone. You can only know when someone is gone when you call them and the ringtone will inform you that one is out of the country because it’s different. 

So that’s why we do these interventions. In terms of that investment, those linkages with telcos. We no longer see telcos as competition,  we see them as partners. We don’t see fintech as competition, we see them as partners, and we partner with them. Some of the offerings we have on the phone are actually being offered through others, not through ourselves.

Because they are the ones who specialize in that. We are the face of it because when you want to come, you want to see Standard Chartered, the underlying platform is somebody else. So those linkages, those partnerships are what makes a big difference in our offering. 

9)How do you rate the local banking ecosystem in regard to the number of banks? And when you scan the market, you realize that the local banks are ahead in relation to asset capitalization. Does this worry you? 

No, I think it’s good for Kenya. Could we do with fewer banks? I think… so that we can enhance local competition. It’s very clear that in 42 months that there is a very clear difference between what you call the tier 1 banks and tier 3 banks, there is a very big difference.

It has benefitted this country, and that is what has driven financial inclusion that is obviously a lot higher than in most sub-Saharan Africa. So that helps. Financial Inclusion is important because it has powered this economy.

I think when you look at what Kenya has been able to do especially in the private sector. We talk about the SMEs. SMEs in this country have been assisted by the banking system, to be honest. That’s what powers trade, credit. So a strong financial system powers an economy.

You cannot have a weak financial system and a robust economy… So it’s something that I think we are all ready for. I am very proud of the stability in the banking sector, and hopefully, it is going to continue helping the Kenyan economy to keep growing and diversifying.

10)When you make an exit from the bank, what do you want to be remembered for? 

A couple of things in terms of driving matters of sustainability, I think that’s important and not just by talking about it. But also being able to say this is what we have done.

We committed to planting a million seedlings two years ago and we are 230/ 250. We looked and said ‘Everybody talks about planting trees but where is the source?’ So we partnered with Kenya Wildlife Services and they got us some space at Nairobi Arboretum and that’s something that I’m really proud of.    

Secondly is in terms of how we stand in terms of diversity that we talked about. How do we ensure that the platform that is laid is going to continue being sustained in terms of ensuring that diversity is entrenched in the bank? And what is more important is understanding that you could achieve diversity but not have inclusion.

You can be in meetings and you are not talking the language that makes everyone feel included. So that is something that is very important, looking out for minorities. For example, there are some colleagues who are visually impaired and when I sat with them one day and they gave me feedback, I was like oops, things we take for granted, that we are not looking at the lifts, bathrooms, and being deliberate to solve the challenges that they face… These are things we need to do. When a new technology is being rolled out, sometimes we don’t remember a different software. It comes as an afterthought.

Looking out for that is something I want to be remembered for. And then how do we ensure our employees bring the best of themselves to work? I want to be remembered for creating an environment where people feel comfortable to challenge the status quo.  They can feel comfortable changing the processes because they are the people who are receiving the process, the people who are actually using it, the ones who will suggest differences, and also the clients to feel that yeah, he made a big difference. 

And finally, of course, a strong financial outcome. At the end of the day, there are shareholders. I meet them sometimes when I travel out of the country and during our AGM and you see it makes a big difference to a lot of these, they are the people who bought these shares especially when Standard Chartered launched.

Now they are elderly, late 70s, and you see the difference that payment makes in their lives. That is very important. So I want to be remembered for having kept the cheque going and not doing anything stupid. 

 “The wealth that you have is not yours. You are only the trustee of the wealth you have,”  Dr. Manilal Premchand Chandaria

I have come to terms with my own mortality and what better way to deal with that than to bequeath to the living?” wittingly asks Dr. Manu Chandaria, veritably the bellwether in the altruistic area of philanthropism within Africa’s fastest-growing region. And understandably, because of his ubiquitous charitable engagements drawing in the existential sectors of health, education, and social services, this nonagenarian typically attracts circumspect admirers as he transcendently redefines charitableness, with no questions asked.   

This past August, for example, Dr. Chandaria fittingly became the first African awardee of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. According to Eric D. Isaacs,  president of the Carnegie Institution, it was Dr. Chandaria’s work to give “hope for a healthier and better-educated population” that caught the attention of the award’s selection committee, 

“Mr. Chandaria is setting a very high standard for philanthropy through his support for higher education and his efforts to mobilize and empower a new generation of business leaders,” Isaacs wrote in a statement to Devex. “We believe that his example will inspire other philanthropists, perpetuating the virtuous cycle that the Carnegie family of institutions seeks to advance.”

On receiving the global award, this professional Engineer who is an alumnus of the University of Oklahoma, graduating in 1951,  underscored that philanthropy was more than just giving money to people in need, noting that people can still be philanthropic by contributing to society in any way they can.

“Philanthropy is not just about writing a cheque and giving it away. It is about serving the community. Whether it is by giving money, by working for the community or by looking after them, whatever way that’s what I call philanthropy,” he said.

  With an estimated net wealth of $2.5 billion inextricably tied to the 107 -year-old family-owned Comcraft Group of Companies, of which he is  Chair, this 93-year-old  industrialist is in big measure part of a selfless, moneyed,

global coterie who passed as proteges of John D. Rockefeller who formalized charitable giving back in 1913, setting up the Rockefeller Foundation.

 Mr. Warren Buffet,92, is a quintessential example.

In 2010 he and Bill Gates launched the Giving Pledge Initiative, asking billionaires to commit to donating at least half of their wealth to charitable causes, with Patrice Motsepe becoming the first African to sign up for the initiative.

  Locally, the philanthropic spirit is getting traction.

The top office in the land took cue as witnessed in 2003 when former President Mwai Kibaki conferred  Dr. Chandaria with the award of the Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear (EBS) “ in recognition of outstanding or distinguished services rendered to the nation in various capacities and responsibilities.” 

And on the global stage, Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him an OBE (Order of the British Empire) “ in recognition of his work for the community in Kenya and promotion of Kenyan economic and British interests in Kenya.”

In 2020 the local Standard newspaper, quoting an anonymous source drawn from the Comcroft Group of Companies, reported Dr. Manu Chandaria had at the time contributed over Ksh 11 billion ( about US$ 100,000,000) to charity.   

Verifiably this seasoned rainmaker is not averse to donating money to worthy causes including but not limited to  Ksh 100 million ( US$ 814,464.89 ) handed to Gertrude’s Children’s Hospital, Ksh 125 million ( US$ 1,018,081.11)  to the University of Nairobi, Ksh 25 million to Kenyatta University, and water tanks and hand sanitizers to Kenya’s Police Force during the Covid-19 epidemic. And for the last 67 years, The Chandaria Foundation has supported hundreds of secondary school children especially the girl child through its bursary program.

“Elsewhere, we are the heart valves of the Chandaria School of Business at the United States International University (USIU) in Nairobi and have helped set up the Chandaria Innovation and Incubation Centre at Kenyatta University. We have started a Chandaria Centre for Performing arts at the University of Nairobi.  The Mabati Technical Institute and Mabati Medical Centre at our flagship company, Mabati Rolling Mills Ltd are supported by the Chandaria Foundation.” Dr. Chandaria is quoted by the Standard newspaper.

“Adding,“ We support many secondary schools across the country in one way or the other. Leap Hubs that we are rolling out in conjunction with the Global Peace Foundation will help students start learning and finding out with the help of others what they can do after school whether or not they proceed to universities and polytechnics. Our aim is to help them create a sustainable business.” 

 And intermittently out of gratitude, beneficiaries of Dr. Chandaria’s selflessness often name institutions eponymously after this local industrialist.

 Disarmingly humble, Dr. Chandaria’s demeanor masks his deep pockets; the way he lives his life embodies a perfect picture of frugality. 

“My wardrobe has five suits. One new comes in, one goes out. I give it out. It’s a lesson about giving. I learned it from Mahatma Gandhi. I followed Gandhi when I was at University. I accepted everything he told us. He led a very simple life,” he told the Standard newspaper.

When he hosted your correspondent in his office along Limuru Road, Nairobi there was nothing displaying a lifestyle coalescing around conspicuous consumption. 

 Everything around him spoke of simplicity.

 But the framed pictures dotting the walls of his office spoke of a man who had dined with the most powerful and influential people in the world. There were framed photos of Mother Theresa and President George W Bush.

 “Mother Teresa was a friend of ours. She came to our house four times. She taught us a lot about prayer. Giving is simple when you want to give. It’s easy to give when you feel the pain of others,” Dr. Chandaria told Jeff Koinange.

 In an interview with African Philanthropy Forum, (APF) this celebrated philanthropist said, “The wealth that you have is not yours. You are only the trustee of the wealth you have.”

 Asked what he would change if he could live his life over, Chandaria responded with characteristic humility and compassion: he would have started serving others sooner, reported the APF.

He explains the genesis of his philanthropic streak is in-grained in the larger Chandaria family. 

“ Back in the 1950s, we heard about the Rockefeller and Ford foundations and what they were doing in America. When my brother and I came back from America we thought of starting The Chandaria Foundation. This was in 1954. The idea was to help people without waiting for them to approach the Chandaria family. We thought that with a foundation there would be a focus on our giving. This has proved to be true over the years.”

 For a man, whose father studied up to standard three and whose mother was initially illiterate, Dr. Chandaria understandably possesses a soft spot for his parents.

“The family was poor. They only spoke Gujarati, while my mother started reading and writing in vernacular at the age of 55. They strongly felt that the future of their children would not be any better than theirs unless they got educated. To them, this was the only way to get the family out of poverty. To me, education plays an important role in the life of a person’s evolution. It’s because of education that we are what we are today.”

He explains: “Ours is a family business. I came back to Mombasa after my master’s degree in engineering at a USA University in 1955. My brother and two cousins, Keshav, Kanti, and Kapoor with various educational backgrounds also returned to Mombasa. Our family had two businesses, one in Nairobi providing wholesale services to many retail shops throughout Kenya.

The second business was the Kaluworks plant in Mombasa. It was established in 1929 and was the major supplier of aluminum pots and pans in Kenya and Tanganyika till World War Two.

Over the years other younger members of the family finished their education in the UK including the United States and also joined the business. It was a small business with only 40 employees and five members of the family. When we came back after our education, we were of two minds, of either starting our own business or working in the family business.

“After considering the fact that our parents gave us the opportunity to go to university for higher education and they had constantly struggled after settling down in Kenya in 1915, we felt we could not disappoint them and ruin their dreams.

We decided to join them to grow the business. Under the guidance of my two elder brothers Devchand and Ratilal, we all put our efforts to grow our small company and within the first five years we had five hundred people working for us.” 

In big measure, Jainism has had a seminal effect on Dr. Chandaria.

 In an exclusive interview with JoongAng  Group in 2010, Dr. Chandaria described his family’s spiritual heritage as an influence on his philanthropy.

 “Jainism has taught me moderation through abstinence and vegetarianism. It guides me to live a life through union and unity within the family,” he reportedly said.

Indeed according to Sean Bevis, a Master’s graduate from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, who studied Indian Religious and Philosophical Systems, specializing in Jainism and Buddhism, “ “donations” are generally regarded as positive acts of charity within the Jain community,” he writes in an essay titled  “A Philosophical and Sociological analysis of the role of ‘charity’ in Jainism with specific reference to the nature of dana ( giving)  and aparigraha  (non-possession )in both Jain and non-Jain environments.”

In order to renounce parigraha (‘possession’) which he refers to as delusion “which causes a person to develop false notions such as “this is mine” or “I made that” and thinking that one can hold onto what he or she currently “has” forever”  and murccha  ( delusion of possession) an individual has to detach themselves from the ten “external possessions” which are land, houses, silver, gold, livestock, grain, maidservants, manservants, clothing, and miscellaneous goods such as furniture[17].

From the mendicant point of view, all these possessions must be given up entirely, apart from in the ‘white clad’ Śvetāmbara sect whose renunciates are allowed to wear clothing[18]. From the point of view of the laity, aparigraha[4] is adhered to by imposing limits on what he or she may own which means that once they have reached the ceiling on the number of goods owned, they should not exceed it as this would constitute parigraha[ 

Vijay Nath in her book, Dāna[11]: Gift System in Ancient India: A Socio-economic Perspective, wrote: “Ancient Hindu lawgivers were always cognizant of the spiritual merit arising from the act of dāna[11]. So much importance was attached to it as a primary social need that it came to be assigned an exalted place in the rituals of the time.

No religious ceremony was deemed complete without it; no act of religious devotion was considered fruitful unless accompanied by it. The charity was sought to be inculcated as the cardinal virtue, through which all could be atoned for and which held the key to the highest heaven.”[23]

According to Dr. Manoj Shah, Dr. Chandaria will leave behind “ a legacy  of being a Nation Builder.”  

While former fellow local Billionaire Mr.Naushad Merali  through his personal assistant Jane Wokabi told  your correspondent  Dr. Chandaria is a “ great philanthropist, very committed to what he does and loves his country .” 

 And award-winning Jyoti Mukherjee said, “ He will always pass as an international citizen. For he’s an Indian staying in Africa, receiving awards from the Queen of England and the President of India, having businesses all around the world, and contributing towards the growth of African industries, education, government reforms, and charity. But overall, he’s an ideal human being. Such people don’t leave a legacy. They live by example for eternity.”

 In mid-1993 Eliud Adiedo, together with five other greenhorns got employed at the flourishing state-owned Kenya National Assurance Company(KNAC ), in what would be their first job since completing their undergraduate studies.

And the Marketing Department arguably proved to be a natural port of call for Adiedo having studied for a Bachelor of Commerce degree in India.   

 Will His Return Be A Hand of Providence for The CIC Insurance Group?

That year would also mark the first time this present-day CEO of the 53-year-old Association of Insurance Brokers of Kenya (AIBK)  would formally meet  Mr. Nelson Kuria, then Chief Manager at the underwriter in charge of the General Insurance Division. 

“He was very amicable and endearing, avoiding squabbles at any cost, even when clearly the marketing department was acting contemptuously towards his division. Overall, he appeared to fully understand the nuances of the industry. But what stands out for Dr.Kuria is that if you pass through his hands it will not be lost that he intentionally seeks to thoroughly mold a professional imbibed with good character traits, ” says Adiedo.

On April 22, 2016, something untoward happened

 Mr.Simon Vincent Njoroge Ngwiri, a- once -upon -a- time CEO of East Africa’s largest insurer at the time, namely  KNAC, succumbed to a stroke and died.

Many people, according to the local Daily Nation of April 28 valued him “for his impeccable integrity and unwavering desire to develop people professionally. ”

And  Kuria was  one of them

Wrote the Daily Nation: Having been an assistant manager during Ngwiri’s reign,  Kuria learned firsthand how the great (“quiet but assertive”) man ran KNAC and drove it to unprecedented heights of prosperity.

“He is a hero,” Mr. Kuria declared. “For those who care about integrity, Ngwiri was a role model but because our values as a society do not attach a premium to integrity, he was ignored.”

 This voraciousness defines the vintage Kuria – integrity is inextricably part of his DNA.

Press forward and today -Kuria’s name has added the honorific title of Dr. besides morphing into a kahuna on the global insurance ecosystem including being the Board Chairman of the CIC Insurance Group.

He is also a recipient of two presidential awards:  namely the Order of the Grand Warrior in 2005 and the Moran of the Burning Spear in 2011, two national accolades handed over to him for his immense contribution to Kenya’s cooperative movement.

His LinkedIn profile indicates,  presently he sits as Chairman of seven generic Boards including being the CEO of one company.

And while Dr. Kuria is widely celebrated today as an accomplished corporate captain, his success belies his destitute genealogy while growing up, which he says, has been the source of the fire in his belly.

“ I was born and bred up in Nyandarua in a place called Kinagop where I experienced real abject poverty. As a family, we would intermittently sleep on empty stomachs. We then relocated to a place called Ndunduri( Gwa Kiongo) which was more backward.

My father used to milk cows, belonging to colonists while my mother owned only one nylon dress which she used to hand-wash on Sundays and dry using the Kikuyu traditional three stones kitchen, “says this recipient of an Honorary Doctorate in Leadership award in 2017 by the Swiss Management Academy.

“ So if you are talking about poverty, it’s something that I can relate to because I have not read about it in books and I’ve not internalized it by reading World Bank statistics, for I have lived in a state of penury. That is why I’m today a strong advocate of equity and social justice,” says Dr. Kuria.

Sadly his father died in 1983, four years after graduating from the University of Nairobi. And as a firstborn in a family of seven children, the responsibility of bringing up his siblings fell on his shoulders

 He initially gained entry into the insurance industry in 1982 when he joined  KNAC, working there for 12 years before exiting in 1996 after becoming Chief Manager of the insurance division to try his hand at running a personal consultancy.

His first job upon graduating from the UON in  1979 was working as a project economist  at the  Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation(ICDC)

But two years later Dr. Kuria was headhunted and as fate would have it, he took a big gamble and joined the Co-operative Insurance Company of Kenya (CIS), a company that was financially distressed, ranking 32 in terms of premium business out of 37 registered local underwriters.

The person headhunting Kuria meanwhile had two job offers. The first one was with a small investment bank that offered better pay compared to the second option, which was the insurer. 

But Kuria was advised to take the insurance job despite the pay being less. 

But why?

 Because the role he was being offered – chief manager in charge of strategy and business development -was more challenging compared to what he was expected to do at the investment bank.

It turns out that by 1994 the Insurance company was technically insolvent, needing a Ksh 100 million (present-day US$ 827,011.60) capital injection for it to survive.

 In addition, the Authorities were declining to issue the Insurer with an operating license including threatening to deregister CIS.

The first decade of CIS’s existence was sheer bliss, according to a research titled: Rediscovering Success: A Case Study of CIC Insurance Group, as the underwriter faced no major competitor for business flowing from the cooperative insurance sector. 

And as a result CIS somewhat became complacent

However, in the latter part of the1980s and early 1990s liberalization of the sector happened and CIS’s monopoly of the cooperative sector was jolted. This was courtesy of the World Bank which had imposed Structural Adjustment Programs as a minimum condition allowing the unlocking of badly needed funds.

As a negative spin-off, CIS’s former advantage overnight became its liability, understandably because its leadership had failed to explore fresh markets including shirking from securing the established business emanating from the cooperative movement. 

 Expectedly, after liberalization, cooperatives suddenly discovered that they did not have to insure with CIS anymore. They also unearthed the rates offered by CIS could be matched or bettered by other insurers.

In addition, there was undue interference in the running of the firm which made it much harder to implement policies that could assist the underwriter from its financial difficulties. 

Reads part of the research, “ Furthermore, CIC lacked autonomy from the Government. This is in spite of the fact the Government had no shares in CIS, yet it exercised a lot of influence through its appointee, the Commissioner of Cooperatives. The board, for example, fired the CEO due to his lackluster performance only for him to be reinstated by the government,” reads part of the research.  

Veritably by joining  CIS it arguably seemed  Kuria’s work had singularly been cut out for him 

 “ Moreover, the hiring of Mr. Nelson Kuria, an experienced hand with in-depth knowledge of the Kenyan insurance industry, injected a refreshing impetus for the management. The recruitment, a move by the CIS leadership to have someone understudy the then CEO, Mr. Silas Kobia, and succeeded him at the expiry of his term, tapped vast experience and skill, hitherto lacking in the organization that injected fresh passion and energy in the management,” reads part of the Case Study. 

He was to assist transform a company that had graciously received a cash injection of Ksh 90 million (presently US$ 744,310.44) from the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF), a 100-year-old international organization which had also seconded two Canadian consultants to assist ameliorate the underbelly of the underwriter – but it turned out the twin fold effort floundered.

For three years after receiving the Ksh 90 million cash injection, ICMIF wanted out, for it seemed the CIS brand was simply a hopeless case and had surreptitiously relinquished the business to another company-all that was remaining for the deal to mature for the workforce at CIC to sign off.

“ I told the international investors that we were not going to allow the company to be sold off. And it was wrong for them to go behind our backs to negotiate a deal on our behalf. In addition, I told the Executive committee of the Board that we were not going to agree to the deal. We had our own dignity even though we were not shareholders. That is when I learned the essence of moral courage. The rest is history,” says Dr. Kuria who at the time had been with the company for three months, a period that allowed him to carry out a swot analysis of the company. 

“ Capitalizing on his vast experience, knowledge, and skills, both at the management and operational level, Mr. Kuria teamed up with the CIS leadership and management to develop a comprehensive five-year strategic plan that was unveiled in 1999. This strategic plan laid the foundation for the radical transformation of the organization and created a unified purpose that galvanized all the stakeholders in fighting for its survival,” reads part of the case study. 

That same year – 1999  – the company rebranded from CIS to Cooperative Insurance Company (CIC) Ltd.

Two years lapsed and  Dr. Kuria ascended to the corner office and eventually made it to group CEO in 2011.

And after 14 years of holding the reins at CIC insurance, a period widely considered to have been the golden years for this rekindling insurer, Kuria retired. 

 “ The transformation of CIC Insurance was a phenomenon. We had three local subsidiaries, namely, Life, General, and Asset management companies. We also achieved regional footprints in South Sudan, Uganda, and Malawi. We were actually looking after a Group with six subsidiaries. And the Group had risen to become the leading cooperative insurer within the Third world. And we were widely seen as a role model of cooperative insurance development in the world,” Dr. Kuria briefly summarizes the sort of iron-clad legacy associated with his 14-year tenure.

 A month later after retiring two inquisitive local business journalists sought to know what Dr. Kuria planned to do during his retirement.

Said Dr. Kuria, “As one leadership guru said, opportunities do not run around waiting to be discovered; they are like buried treasure that only the most discerning and persevering find.” 

“I will be going on sabbatical leave for two months to have a proper rest. Afterward, I will consider offering my knowledge and experience in financial services by sitting on boards, both in the public and private sectors, if invited,” he told the local Standard Newspaper.

 In addition, he said, “I would also like to put in more time serving God through the church, as well as giving back to society.” 

Dr. Kuria says his character of servant leadership was initially honed by the De La Salle Brothers who taught at Nyahururu High School, his alma mater and he also appreciates an Opus Dei leaning  Prof.Terry Ryan who happened to be his economist lecturer during his undergraduate days for his mentorship.

In the business, circle turbulence is a normal occurrence and CIC insurance is not immune to the vagaries that buffet corporate bodies.

This was proven true in the fiscal year ending Dec 2020 when this Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) listed company posted a Ksh 296.8 million (US$ 2,454,570.43).

With the conspicuously dampening financial results upending a 13-year profit-making run by the insurer since 2007.

It also marked the first full-year loss to be reported by the company since listing on the NSE on July 18 2012 becoming the sixth insurance company to be listed on the bourse and overall, the 60th company to list.

The downcast news coming from CIC insurance emanated from the  investment income of this underwriter which had slumped by 25.9 % to KSh1.2 billion (US$11.08m) in a period when the Covid-19 pandemic had depressed share prices on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.

“ The insurers’ bottom line was also hurt by a 7.6 percent rise in claims to KSh5.4 billion (US$49.85m). Its net premiums were flat at KSh7.1 billion (US$ 65.55m). CIC’s operating expenses dropped 10.7 percent to KSh2.8 billion (US$25.85m) while finance costs declined 10.1 percent to KSh302 million (US$2.79m),” reported CEO Business Africa.

Tellingly the insurer was hemorrhaging cash and was in need of a fixer

And normally when a company careens about a corporate debacle, business prudence dictates the hiring of an independent Director as a probable panacea.

For the Board of CIC insurance, Dr. Kuria seemed a perfect fit and on September 29, 2020, it appointed him as an independent director, a clear acknowledgment of the white knight credentials of this talismanic corporate insider who currently owns  0.6 % of CIC insurance.

According to the Nairobi-based Business Daily, Dr. Kuria’s appointment was part of ongoing management and boardroom changes geared at turning around the fortunes of a loss-making organization.

Veritably, it would appear the CIC Board was prescient in believing Dr. Kuria’s presence would speed- up the reawakening of the limping organization.

For six months after the arrival of Dr. Kuria, the underwriter reported a Ksh 668.4 million (US$ 5,527,745.53) net profit for the year ending December 2021, the highest net profit in six years, from a recovery of Ksh 296.8 million (US$ 2,454,570.43) loss registered the previous year.  

Leading the Group CEO Patrick Nyaga who owns 0.5 % of the company said the improved performance was a result of turnaround strategies started in mid-2020.

Said Nyaga, “The positive results are attributed to the implementation of key transformational initiatives during the year, key among them: performance management, functional structures to support our Corporate Strategic Plan, operational efficiency, cost optimization, digitization, research, and innovation among others.”

To close Nairobi watchers the ensuing naming of Dr. Kuria as Chairman of

the CIC Insurance Board was justified with generic local insurance practitioners, praising the move following the retirement of James Magomere who had served as Chairperson for 16 years.

According to Mr. Clifford Ochieng, Chairman  Association Of Kenya Professional Insurance Agents (AKPIA)  ​​Dr.Kuria possesses the inner knowledge of what makes CIC tick including the inherent professional pedigree and character traits necessary to steer the underwriter to its next chapter of success.

Says Ochieng,“ Dr. Kuria was responsible for the turnaround at CIC insurance before it became a group. His Integrity, valuable Connections, and wide network within and around the global cooperative movement played a bigger role. 

“Having served on different Boards of organizations and also as an economic advisor to President Uhuru Kenyatta. That also played a bigger role as he brings the experience, connections, and networks to the CIC Group brand.”