NAIROBI, May 13 – The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group Tuesday announced the appointment of three senior executives to the bank.
The KCB board of directors appointed Caroline Kariuki as the Managing Director for its mortgage subsidiary, Savings and Loans (S&L), while the Head of Corporate Affairs Kepha Bosire is now the Divisional Director for Public Affairs and Communication.
Albert Odongo, previously Head of Central Services at the Head Office, is now the new Head of Regional Subsidiaries Support to boost the regional subsidiary team.
The Group’s Chief Executive Officer Martin Oduor-Otieno explained that Bosire’s new position was created as a result of a marked increase in responsibilities and accountabilities in the functions of the former Corporate Affairs Department.
“The division will now include the KCB Foundation, sustainability management and reporting, regional corporate profiling, Public Affairs and Relations (PR), Corporate Social Responsibility and internal and external communications,” he described.
Kariuki took over from Wangui Ngatia, who will be proceeding on leave at the end of June pending retirement.
Prior to the appointment, she served a two-year stint as the Unit Head of Corporate Banking at KCB and has a banking career spanning over 18 years.
Speaking to Capital Business News, Kariuki pledged to put in place strategies that would ensure that many more Kenyans would be able to own homes in the long term.
She added that her goal would also be to grow their market share in the mortgage business from the current 20 percent, in a few years.
“We have great ideas. We intend to come up with competitive products and segment the market so that more people can own homes,” she added.
The bank recently signed a Sh600 million partnership with the Housing Ministry that will see it provide mortgage facilities for civil servants.
Currently, S&L is second to Housing Finance in mortgage lending.
Thanking the board for elevating their department into a division, which will oversee PR operations in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Sudan, Bosire on his part promised to raise the profile of their regional subsidiaries, which would in turn promote the bank’s growth agenda.
“We will be looking at and addressing issues such as social, economic and environmental challenges that we think can jeopardize the bank if left unattended.”
