Welcome to the Amari Book Club Microsite!
The Amari Book Club is a collaboration between Kenya Bankers Association, Strathmore Business School, Kenyan Wallstreet and New Faces New Voices Kenya, a Graca Machel Network for women in Finance.
Our goal as the Amari Book Club is to build a community of women in the financial services sector and facilitate leadership development through mentorship and networking.
The Book Club will be constituted by members and observers. The Members will be women working in the banking and finance sector, as well as, senior mentors (male and female) from the sector; while the Observers will be formed by the partners and career coaches with experience in the sector.
The overall objectives of the Amari Book Club are:
- Promote thoughtful, well informed, inciteful women leaders in Africa
- Promote management skills capacity by best practice sharing
- Facilitate networking and mentorship for women managers and leaders in banking and finance
- Foster community and facilitate stewardship
- Promote boardroom diversity
Our Key Activities
The Amari Book Club is modelled after successful book clubs, including Book Club 26. We have identified the following key activities so as to add value and help you be the best that you can be.
- Curate a reading list from recommendations by leaders in the sector: We will feature an eclectic reading list that will cover both non-fiction and fiction literature. We have a robust list already curated based on input from more than 30 financial sector leaders from across Africa. In addition to books on strategy, innovation and effective management, you will learn from the most powerful and insightful classical fiction, biographies and history books…yes, we are not leaving any genre out as we work to help sharpen your mind and stimulate your innovative thinking as a woman leader!
- Host Regular Meetings: The Book Club will meet every 2 months to discuss featured reading; and here’s the best part: you get to decide what we read! A complete list of the curated books will be shared, and Amari Members will get to vote for the book that will be featured during the Book Club meetings.
- Networking: Amari Book Club Members will have the opportunity to network with each other and Full Members will have an added advantage of their information being added to partner databases which are routinely utilized by board and management recruiters.
- Mentoring Circles: Members will benefit from mentors who will be recruited by the Amari Secretariat. The mentors will come from diverse backgrounds and will be targeted based on their successful careers in banking and finance.
- Coaching Sessions: We will host occasional guidance sessions facilitated by Career Coaches who will volunteer their time to help Amari members navigate their careers.
- Volunteer Opportunities: We want you to not only read, learn and network; but also give back. Thanks to Strathmore Business School, Amari members will have an opportunity to mentor the boards of small businesses that are undertaking development courses at the university. The goal is to recruit Amari members to serve in an advisory board capacity for these companies…its your opportunity to put what you’ve learned into practice!
The Amari Reading List
We have almost 100 books carefully selected for you to be a more effective and insightful woman leader. Below is a list of some of the books we will feature.
“Mind Over Money” is not so much about your money as it is about your mind. It’s about your attitude and approach to money. It’s not hard to make money if you are careful and sussed – millionaires are two a penny today. But, keeping it is the problem. That’s what smart people do. It’s what you need to do.- Recommended By Dr Nancy Onyango, Director, Office of Internal Audit and Inspection, International Monetary Fund
Human Future at the New Frontier of Power By Shoshana Zaboff; This book’s major contribution is to give a name to what’s happening, to put it in cultural and historical perspective, and to ask us to pause long enough to think about the future and how it might be different from today.”―Frank Rose, WALL STREET JOURNAL, Recommended by Sekou Owino, Convener of Book Club 26
To what one knows is right) underlies all leadership problems in today’s organizations, according to the premise of this work. However well-intentioned they may be, leaders who deceive themselves always end up undermining their own performance. Recommended by Rekha Mhango, Deputy Governor, Bank of Zambia
the world of “outliers”–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?” Recommended by Nuru Mugambi, Founder of the Leading Women in Banking and Finance Network and Director at Kenya Bankers Association
“Braving the Odds” is an inspiring memoir by CNBC, AABLA All African Business Woman of the Year. Having been a multi-award-winning CEO of a large international bank, Mizinga Melu knows what it’s like being the only woman in the boardroom. It’s not an easy ride. From navigating untaught corporate politics, finding her skills and experience routinely questioned, and having to work harder just to have her voice heard, her resilience has been constantly put to the test. However, she was primed to overcome hardship.
This isn’t just a book about braving the odds in the boardroom—it’s about how an ordinary girl from Zambia overcame such setbacks as the loss of her mother while still a young girl, failing out of nursing school as a young woman, and being denied an executive role she knew she was the most qualified for as an aspiring banker. Melu warmly invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood growing up on a farm and the growth of her deep and unwavering faith, to her years as a global banking executive balancing the demands of career and motherhood while living internationally.
Braving the Odds is a story about being a daughter, wife, mother, woman of God, and an African businesswoman in a white man’s world. Through its telling, she hopes to inspire women and girls around the world to not let anything stand in their way.
Membership Information
Members will be based on Levels with each providing value addition and networking opportunities.
- Level 1 (Full) Membership: Full Amari Club Membership to participate in all in-person and online activities and events hosted by the Amari Book Club at no additional cost.
- Quarterly: USD57.50 per quarter [USD 230 annually]
- Annually: USD 180 annually [USD 50 discount if you pay for the full year]
- Team Package for 5 Corporate Members: USD 905.00
- Level 2 Membership: Limited Membership that provides access to online events at no charge and 1 free networking event per year, this level does not include Mentorship and Coaching support.
- Quarterly: USD30 per quarter [USD 120 annually]
- Annually: USD 100 annually [USD 20 discount if you pay for the full year]
- Corporate Page: No corporate package on offer at this level
Tell Me More!
If you are interested in registering to join the Amari Book Club, please fill this form and we will get in touch with you.
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