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Equity named African Bank of the Year

Wednesday May 23 2018
equity

Customers at an Equity Bank branch. The lender has been named the African Bank of the Year at the African Banker Awards. FILE PHOTO | NATION

By IVAN R. MUGISHA

Regional lender Equity Bank Group has been named the African Bank of the Year at the 12th edition of African Banker Awards held in Busan, South Korea.

The bank was on Tuesday awarded for top performance across all banking metrics.

The Kenyan bank had been shortlisted alongside Attijariwafa of Morocco, Guarantee Trust Bank of Nigeria, Standard Chartered and Mauritius Commercial Bank.

Equity CEO, James Mwangi, also won African Banker of the Year for visionary leadership.

Equity Bank Group boasts over nine million customers across the continent and has subsidiaries in Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Its shares are listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and also cross-listed on the Ugandan Securities Exchange (USE).

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Tanzanian lender CRDB Bank Plc was named the Best Regional Bank in East Africa.

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) former governor Prof Benno Ndulu was named the Central Bank Governor of the Year.

Prof Ndulu, who led the banking regulator for 10 years – from January 2008 to January 2018 – was recognised for his role in pushing for financial inclusion and for sound macroeconomic management.

Togo-headquartered pan-African lender Ecobank won the award for Innovation in Banking and also Best Retail Bank in Africa largely for its technology integration to widen its products and reach.

South African banks dominated the investment banking and deals of the year categories.

Standard Bank Group received the Investment Bank of the Year award.

The African Banker Awards by the African Banker Magazine, a UK-based publication, is held annually on the sidelines of the African Development Bank annual meetings.

—Additional reporting by Dorothy Ndalu.

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