Mr. Mohammed Nyaoga’s Keynote address
Tuesday, 24 May 2016
Your excellences, ladies and gentlemen—I feel extremely honoured to be
with you here tonight to celebrate the achievements of our region’s
banking and financial institutions. This is more so especially that this is
happening here in Nairobi, the home of so many strong and leading
regional institutions and an ideal setting for the Banker Africa East Africa
Banking Awards ceremony.
Over the years, Kenyan banking and financial institutions—
alongside those recognised tonight from Sudan, Tanzania, Rwanda,
Uganda and Ethiopia—have risen to become pillars of this region’s
development. It was here in Kenya that we first experienced mobile
banking revolution, and where it continues to rule the world.
It was in Sudan that Islamic banking first took root. And it is in the
East African region as a whole that innovations such as agency
banking are bringing financial services to the most remote regions
and to our citizens that need them. This phenomenon has taken
financial inclusion in our region to new heights.
For these and many other reasons, our region has gone through
nearly a decade of impressive exponential and optimistic growth.
Even in the current global climate, East African countries continue
to lead Sub Saharan Africa’s GDP projections. But this growth must
remain diversified, and it must be inclusive.

It is extremely important, now more than ever, to give recognition
to these institutions that are maintaining their core values and
leading through sustainable growth and strong principles. Financial
institutions serve diverse stakeholders.
Good governance is a journey, one that leads to improved financial
reporting, compliance, consumer protection, profitability, higher
dividends, and even happier customers. It is critical that you pay
attention to the environment in which you operate.
Represented in this room tonight are some of East Africa’s largest
financial institutions. They are some of its fastest-growing, most
innovative, and far-reaching quite clearly most of them have not
only engaged in thinking out of the box but have indeed thrown
away the box. They have welcomed and harnessed many of the
digital technologies now changing the meaning of banking the world
over; financial technologies (going beyond brick and mortar) that
will also be recognised in the awards tonight.
I therefore believe it is no coincidence that Banker Africa would
choose to hold their first awards ceremony in Nairobi. Kenya, and
East Africa as a whole, is in many ways leading what it means to be
in banking today.