– As a simple livestock herder at a young age, James Mwangi learnt the concept of supply chain which propelled him to the man he is
– The 58-year-old horned his entrepreneurial skills at the University of Nairobi after securing a scholarship owing to his academic talent
– The banker rescued Equity Building Society from the verge of collapse in 1993 when he joined as director strategy and transformed it into one of the largest banks in East Africa
The story of James Mwangi, the managing director and group CEO of Equity Group Holdings Limited is one of resilience, hard work and an uncanny concern for his customers.
The career banker was born in 1962 in a tiny village called Nyagatugu flanking the Aberdare Ranges in Central Kenya and was raised by a peasant mother after his father died shortly after his birth.
Equity Group Ltd CEO James Mwangi is a successful career banker who has inspired many young people. Photo: Equity Bank.
Source: Facebook
His rise to a world-class banker was shaped by the challenges he faced as a young boy who herded cows and goats in a communal atmosphere and sold milk in the village, getting a first hand experience in business. "It was a simple life. As boys we grazed cows and goats…we hunted wild animals like rabbits. Growing up we didn’t know if people were well off or poor, we were all equals. As a community, we built houses together and socilialised at village dances," he told Forbes Africa Magazine. READ ALSO: Nairobi woman says magic gave her powers to sleep with rich men, eat their money
As a simple livestock herder, Mwangi learnt the concept of supply chain which propelled him to the man he now is. "Taking milk to the village restaurant or selling fruits to the middleman who would later take them to Nairobi introduced me to the concept of supply chains. I realised I was the primary producer with my mother, the middleman dealt with logistics, and then an aggregator, who was our face in the marketplace, played on volume and made more money than anyone else," he said. The banker later horned these skills at the University of Nairobi after securing a scholarship owing to his academic talent. After completing his studies he began his career as an auditor at Ernst and Young and moved to the defunct Trade Bank Group, […]
