Equity Bank CEO Statement on Sacking of Employees

The new HR team challenged me and said, 'James, three years ago in DRC, you lost money. We saw you. You went and managed to get 16 people apprehended, and you got judgment against them.'

We saw the same in Uganda—some loans, agency issues, whatever it was. You went after people and managed to get them jailed. We saw in Kenya, payroll and payment issues.

They said, 'We can help you.'
So I said, 'Help me.'

They did a deep dive into conduct—how people carry themselves. Amazingly, they said the easiest way to start is by checking whether there are conflicts of interest with our partners. So, they looked at suppliers and those involved in procurement. They looked at insurance—those who make claims and those who process claims. They looked at loans—those who receive loans and those who give them. Is there a compromised relationship?

Fortunately enough—we are a bank. We have access. The law is supportive. We must know our customer. We must confirm, and we were shocked to see money changing hands. We didn’t know whether it was appreciation, a kickback—whatever it was. But it was happening.

We said, 'But you signed this code of conduct. It says you can’t do this.'

So yes, we are going through that process. People are taking responsibility and explaining themselves. I hope I’ve now told you the full story. You probably read about it on the front page of one of the dailies. This is the full picture.

It’s a fair process. Because you can’t come here to borrow school fees for your children and then someone asks you, 'Why don’t you buy me lunch?' You didn’t come to buy people lunch. You came to borrow school fees.

Micro-enterprises cannot be asked for kickbacks—not in this bank. This is a corruption-free environment.

We have become very firm, and we are very excited about what we’ve been able to achieve.