Equity Group Managing Director and chief executive James Mwangi. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NMG We are a trusted broker, because we know both sides and we have no interest other than in their success. We gave the Congolese the impression that this is a bank that cares, and the Kenyans that this is a bank that has their interest at heart.
The growth of Equity will most likely now be driven by DRC, and I guess that in the next five years, Equity DRC will be bigger than Equity Kenya.
James Mwangi, the Equity Group CEO, spoke to Jackson Mutinda on the lender’s plan for regional transformation and resilience, and why Congo is the driver of the programme.
You seem very upbeat about the Congo business. Why?
The global commodity prices of the raw materials that the Democratic Republic of Congo produces are at an all-time high. That is why its current accounts position has changed from a deficit to a surplus, driven by the demand for electric cars. It has coltan, copper and cobalt, which is used in making electric vehicle batteries.
The world is going green, and the biggest driver is demand for green locomotive energy. Now 70 percent of coltan and cobalt comes from the DRC, and the highest copper quality in the world, accounting for 30 percent of the world’s supply. So we can see as demand picks up, as the world wants to have zero transport-linked emissions by 2030, the demand can only go up, and prices can only go up because of constrained supply.
We believe with economic and political reforms, then the benefits will trickle down to the people. Transformation of the economy can happen within a very short time because it’s enabled financially, there is political will, the population is hungry, and the economy has been opened.
DRC has for long been closed to one-to-one relations with Belgium and France. And France, for whatever reason, has always been able to close deals. DRC has reformed and chosen to join the East African Community, revive relations with its neighbours Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Angola, and Kenya further.
The fact that Equity has subsidiaries in DRC, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania, and that Nairobi is the logistics hub for DRC’s needs for health, education and trade puts us in the right place at the right time.
That Kenya Airways has daily flights to Kinshasa, Lubumbashi […]
