(9 Amazing & Inspiring quotes & stories of James Mwangi)

CEO of Equity Bank and the first African to win the World’s most coveted award for Business Leaders – the Ernst & young entrepreneur of the year Award)

JAMES MWANGI PERSONAL PROFILE.

Contributed and compiled by Udzungwa Mountains College  Students Club of Entrepreneurship (UMCSCE) 30th April 2022 (club@umcsce.org)

LEARNING QUOTES AND LESSONS FROM JAMES MWANGI.

“I am up at 3 am every day and I (James Mwangi) read mostly business and Management books and biographies’, – James Mwangi.

“I (James Mwangi) told staff, trust me. They (staff) believed me (James Mwangi) because I believed it myself. If you expect anyone else to follow you, you must have absolute confidence in yourself!’  – James Mwangi.

“I (James Mwangi) knew I could not let down the Chairman and CEO and above all, I could not let down the customers. When I said, “Trust me.” I meant to keep my word’ – James Mwangi.

“Put the customer and his or her needs first – he is the most important person in the World. Treat people with dignity and respect. Serve, serve to the best of your ability.” – James Mwangi.

“How could I entice people to come to Equity? “What could I provide that was needed but not available? I (James Mwangi) decided to look inside the organization. If I could change the culture internally, I would have in effect succeeded in reinventing Equity.” – James Mwangi.

“I(James Mwangi) accepted the challenge because I could see clearly how important a properly functioning society was to the masses. Micro credits, which would make a huge difference in people’s lives, were their only avenue out of poverty. I (James Mwangi) felt I had to do something – somehow square the circle. – James Mwangi.

“This award makes a point that Africa is ready to be fully integrated with the rest of the World and what we hold are perceptions that are very far from reality. This is a global recognition for Africans who are embracing the power of entrepreneurship to change the economic and social state of Africa,” – James Mwangi.

“Entrepreneurship is the cure for the African paradox of a continent with resources and human capital but that remains poor. The only ingredient lacking is entrepreneurship,” – James Mwangi,

“Anyone who can beat a fleet of high–flying entrepreneurs is surely worth listening to’ – James Mwangi.

JAMES MWANGI BACKGROUND.

James Mwangi is the sixth of seven children. His father fell a victim to the struggle of Kenya’s pre-independence freedom. His widowed mother, Grace Wairimu had to find ways and means to feed and raise them in a deeply rural setting of the Aberdares, the site of majestic Mt Kenya. There was no time for childish games – everyone had to pitch in to keep the home fires burning. James Mwangi, like the rest of his siblings, had to put in his shares of chores – tending to the livestock, making charcoal, selling fruits and other products for small margins. Although the family was poor, her mother, Grace Wairimu, ensured that her children were disciplined and she laid out a set of values that became anchors in their lives. She (Grace Wairimu) decided that her children, all her children would be educated – no matter what it took. When she (Grace Wairimu) insisted that her daughters also attend school, a shudder of apprehension went through the village of Kangema, their home. Girls did not go to school. There was a lot of shaking of heads, but Grace Wairimu was adamant. Perhaps this inured the young James Mwangi to criticism and allowed him to ignore a lot of head shaking later in life when he (James Mwangi) was trying to breathe life in a defunct organization. Despite enormous social and financial problems, Grace Wairimu ensured that all her children were educated. Grace died at the age of  98. It was the fruit of years of struggle for James Mwangi. His father died when he (James Mwangi) was very young and his mother struggled to bring up her children alone. To raise money for school fees, James Mwangi sold charcoal and fruit on the streets. It was his training ground for buying and trading. The blood of an entrepreneur ran through Mwangi’s veins from a tender age. As a young man, Mwangi formed a small company selling sand in Nairobi, in partnership with Gideon Ndambuki. They had four lorries and a pick-up truck, later they sold fruit and vegetables to hotels.

JAMES MWANGI FOUNDATION OF SUCCESS.

James Mwangi attended the Nyagatugu primary school in Kangema village. But money was short and the family teamed up to supplement their income by engaging in small business. While this may have been humbling for the boy,  he ( James Mwangi ) was never the less absorbing invaluable business lessons that would stand him in good stead in his future. He (James Mwangi) was learning, without consciously doing so, the basic of business what people needed, what they were prepared to pay, how to add value to mundane articles, how to negotiate, how to make a sale and turn a profit. With no role models to emulate, he (James Mwangi) and his family were in effect, discovering the basics of business all by themselves based on observation of what worked and what didn’t. He James Mwangi obtained outstanding results at the end of his primary schooling and this provided a government scholarship to attend the Ichagaki Secondary School. Here he (James Mwangi) introduced,  for the first time, to accountancy and commerce. Once again, Mwangi obtained O level results and went to Kagema High School to read his A levels in economics, literature and geography. Whatever he (James Mwangi) was picking up in theory, he was mentally applying to real life situations and his earlier, unformed brushes with commerce. He (James Mwangi) obtained a bachelor’s degree in commerce from the University of Nairobi, passed a Certified Public Accountancy course and was ready to face the daunting and mysterious world of work. Mwangi’s four sons have attended the famous Ivy League Institutions in the US –Yale, Cornell, and Brown –and – Carnegie Melon.

The story of James Mwangi and Equity Bank – from a young boy selling charcoal on the slopes of the Aberdares (Nyandarua) to becoming the most successful banker in the history of modern Africa is so incredible that it rightly belongs in the realms of fiction. But he (James Mwangi) remains humble and cheerful, ready to make a joke at first opportunity. He (James Mwangi) has never forgotten the struggles of his childhood: he has set up a series of foundations to ensure that no deserving youth will miss out on education, nor will anyone lose opportunities through lack of financial knowledge.

Scholarships (Social transformation initiatives)

Under its wings to Fly Programme, Equity Bank has secured a  Kshs 6 billion ($70m) scholarship fund in partnership with The Master Card Foundation and with financial support from UK AID, USAID and KFN to provide 10,000 academically gifted, but financially hamstrung, children with secondary scholarships. So far, 1,290 students have benefited, with over 65 new pursuing higher education in some of the best universities in the world, including Ivy League Schools in the US.

The foundation, in partnership with The Master Card Foundation, is

training 1 million young men and women in financial education. The course has already been completed by 400,000. The foundation, under its Kilimo Biashara initiative, has also been deeply involved in the agricultural transformation of Kenya in partnership with AGRA, the government of Kenya, and IFAD.

For his contribution to economic development, Mwangi was presented with the chief of the order of the Burning Spear, Kenya’s highest national award, which very few civilians have ever achieved. He (James Mwangi) received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the banking industry in Kenya. He (James Mwangi) chairs Kenya’s vision 2030 Delivery Board – a blueprint to transform Kenya into a middle-income country by 2030. At the continental level, Africa Investor Awards named him CEO of the year 2009; he (James Mwangi) became the first person to win the African Banker Magazine’s African Banker of the Year Award for the years running (2010 and 2011) and he is the inaugural winner of the African Leadership Network. Internationally, he (James Mwangi) is the holder of the Global Vision Award alongside Professor Mohammed Yunus of Grameen Bank and was cited as an initiator of the concept of the future that will shape the world economy. The Financial Times named him among the top 50 emerging world thought leaders. In 2011, Forbes named him among the 20 most influential people in African business. He (James Mwangi) is a member of the G 20 Advisory Board on Agriculture and of the World Economic Council. He (James Mwangi) serves at the Global Advisory Council of Visa inc and is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative. He is a guest lecturer at Stanford, Columbia and MIT Universities and the Lagos Business School, where the Equity Bank Business Model is a case study. He (James Mwangi) has been awarded four honorary doctorates for his contribution to humanity, entrepreneurship and economic developments.

James Mwangi role model is the late Nelson Mandela. The way he (Nelson Mandela) changed people’s lives inspires him every day. That is what drives James Mwangi – the feeling that he is changing lives for the better, being an agent of social-economic transformation in Africa.

Among his business gurus, he (James Mwangi) counts Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, Bill Gates, who he says showed him how to think broadly about society, Bill and Melinda Gates for their contribution to the disadvantaged in Africa and the late Steve Jobs for his technological genius. Finally, James Mwangi, a Nairobi Banker to become the first African to win a coveted award for entrepreneurs, his historic victory is not only for Kenya, not only for Africa but also for all black entrepreneurs everywhere. It also marked the apex of an extraordinary journey that began 52 years ago in a small village on the slopes of the Aberdare Mountains in central Kenya.