KCB boss Joshua Oigara during an interview at his office. The first time KCB Group Chief Executive Joshua Oigara met former Safaricom boss Bob Collymore , a mobile lending and saving platform was born.
And KCB, one of the oldest local banks, was reborn.
So by the time Oigara was reading Collymore’s eulogy at All Saints Cathedral on July 4 last year, KCB M-Pesa, the idea birthed in the first meeting between the two executives, had already catapulted the lender’s customer base to 22 million from 4.4 million five years earlier.
KCB M-Pesa is as much a product of the partnership between KCB and Safaricom as it was of the friendship between Oigara and Collymore.
“One of my greatest inspirations to build a stronger bank was because of our engagement with Bob Collymore,” says Oigara, adding that talking to Bob, as he was fondly known among his friends and peers, gave him a “compass.” Read More
“And you know with a compass you don’t really get lost.”
Mentor and coach
Oigara’s firm belief in practice over perfection was also bequeathed to him by Bob, a man he calls his mentor and coach.
“I did not know him that well,” said Oigara of his first meeting with the former Safaricom CEO.
“But we thought that we can expand … we can create a different model of a product that can give customers a much-needed credit facility when they are in need.”
His face is bereft of emotion as he reminisces on the life-long lessons he got from his mentor. It was Collymore who founded the famous Boys Club, where Oigara was and remains its youngest member. Until his death, Collymore was its captain.Other members of the club, which still meets once a month, include Citizen TV anchor Jeff Koinange, Radio Africa Group CEO Patrick Quarcoo, politician Peter Kenneth and Scangroup CEO Bharat Thakrar.Bharat is the new captain.Oigara talks animatedly but maintains a studious posture and a probing look.Being a Friday, my colleague and I had expected to find him in casual or semi-casual attire, like khaki pants and a plaid shirt. Instead, he is wearing a plain light blue cotton shirt, auburn tie and dark grey trousers. Perhaps it is a case of once a banker, always a banker.His corner office on the eighth floor of Kencom House is spacious, airy and uncluttered.“We are always working on the go. If you look at my office […]