Anthony Kituuka becomes first Ugandan to head Equity’s local unit

November 21, 2022 in Business, Companies by Editor

Prime lender Equity Uganda, has made changes at the top of its leadership team, elevating Anthony Kituuka to the helm, in the Managing Director role. His immediate predecessor Samuel Kirubi, was promoted to Chief operating Officer at Equity Group Hq, in changes announced earlier today.

The rotations take immediate effect, the bank said in a statement signed off by Ms Barbara Among, the head of Communications at Equity’s Ugandan unit.

Before today’s announcement by Board Chair Mathew Ocitti, Kituuka was the Executive Director, a position he has held since 2016.  A banker with more than 15 years under the belt, Kituuka becomes the first Uganda to head the local unit of Africa’s fastest growing banking brand. His full assumption of the new role awaits regulatory approval.

“We are happy to announce the appointment of Anthony Kituuka as the new Managing Director of Equity Bank Uganda with immediate effect, subject to Bank of Uganda approval. We are confident that Anthony will build on his institutional knowledge and the work together with his immediate predecessor and Equity Uganda staff to push Equity Uganda to the next level of growth,” Equity Uganda board chair Mathew Ocitti was quoted as saying.

Alongside Kirubi, and after his promotion from Executive Director regional subsidiaries where he was between 2014 and 2016, Kituuka played a role in steering the bank into a Tier-1 lender. Under their adept management, the duo turned the bank around, lifting it from 16^th, to the sixths largest bank in Uganda by deposits and assets and the 5^th most profitable in Uganda in seven years.

Kituuka holds an MBA in Oil and Gas from Middlesex University, London and a Bachelor’s Degree in Statistics and Applied Economics from Makerere University. He is also a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants Certificate (FCCA), in addition to attending an Advanced Management Program at Strathmore College

Ocitti further said the board was “confident that Kituuka’s experience” in the banking and corporate world would “enable him to lead the bank to scale and serve more people in pursuit of our purpose of transforming lives, giving dignity, and expanding opportunities for wealth creation.”

A parallel statement by Equity Group Holdings Plc, announced the promotion of Samuel Kirubi to Group Chief Operating Officer. “Kirubi moves from the position of Managing Director, Equity Bank Uganda to head the Group operations from the Equity’s head office in Nairobi,” the regional lender said.

“As Equity rolls out its ambitious Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan with the aim of scaling its customer base to 100 million by 2025, this calls for the scaling up of our operations, footprint and distribution infrastructure driven by technologically driven digitization and virtualization of the Bank. The Board has expressed confidence in Kirubi’s capability, experience and deep knowledge of the transition culture in taking up this responsibility at a critical time of the bank’s growth and expansion,” said Equity Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Dr James Mwangi.

Kirubi holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Moi University and a BA in Economics and Statistics from Egerton University. He is a graduate of Advanced Management Program (Strathmore IESE Business School, Barcelona Spain). He joined Equity Bank in 2001 and has gained vast experience in operations, marketing and customer service. He previously served as Chief Operations Officer in Equity Bank South Sudan from 2009. He was promoted to the Founding Managing Director of Equity Bank Rwanda in 2011 before being reassigned in the same position to Equity Bank Uganda in 2015. Last year, Equity Bank Rwanda became the 2^nd largest bank in Rwanda. During his tenure in Uganda, he turned the subsidiary from loss making to become the 5^th most profitable bank in Uganda and the third most profitable subsidiary of Equity Group after Kenya and DRC. Prior to joining as a staff, Samuel was one of Equity Group’s pioneer interns in the bespoke Equity Leaders Program (ELP). 

Samuel will oversee the enhancement of the Group’s capacity to deliver on its strategy by aligning people, processes, systems, commercial business and business risk to customers aspirations. He will work with all the banking subsidiaries to deliver globally benchmarked exceptional banking services and solutions and leverage on technology to drive efficiency and seamless customer experience characterized by ease and convenience of lifestyle, Mwangi added.