Equity Group was founded in 1984 as Equity Building Society (EBS) with the goal of providing mortgage financing for the low income population. At the time, the vast majority of Africans were excluded from access to financial resources and banking was considered to be a preserve for the wealthy.
38 years after its founding, Equity Group has grown to be region’s largest financial institution with operations across 6 countries controlling a total balance sheet of more than $9 Billion, making it among the world’s Top 1000 Banks.
Through its Regional Private Sector Economic Recovery and Resilience Stimulus Plan, Equity Group intends to support Businesses in East and Central Africa by accelerating economic recovery and resilience in the continent in a post-COVID 19 environment.
The banking conglomerate led by Dr James Mwangi has put together a package worth $6 Billion ( Over KES 670 Billion) to support key sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing and logistics, trade and investment, social and environmental sectors over the next five years.
After five years, Equity Group targets to have created over 50 million direct and indirect jobs in the countries of operation while aiming to lend to five million businesses and 25 million individual borrowers.
While addressing the media recently Dr James Mwangi said the Group will leverage on its strong capital liquidity position and the support of several international financing institutions such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank to mobilize the funds for the marshal plan.
Africa has the youngest population in the world, with 70% of sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30. As part of the 2025 strategy, Equity Group has a special focus on youth and women, supporting them to be the primary drivers of creating and expanding opportunities in the real economy.
The DR Congo Opportunity; Natural resources in agriculture and extractives
Agriculture is one of the key pillars of the lender’s`Africa Recovery and Resilience Plan.’ The regional lender is keen to help farmers through the entire value chain: from production to aggregation, to logistics, to manufacturing to export thereby driving higher throughput of raw materials and ultimately leading to a more inclusive industrialization of Africa.
DR Congo is also regarded as the wealthiest and most blessed country in the world with natural resources with limitless water supply, unlimited green energy recourses, hydropower, wind, solar and therma, fertile soil in addition to an abundant of world class mineral deposits of such as cobalt, gold, diamonds, lead, zinc, uranium, copper, natural gas, coltan, among many other minerals.
Equity’s Approach to DR Congo Expansion
Over the last few years, Equity Bank completed the acquisition of two lenders; Banque Commercial du Congo (BCDC) and ProCredit Bank.
Equity first acquired an 86 percent stake in German bank ProCredit between 2015 and 2017, which it renamed Equity Bank Congo (EBC). In August 2020 the bank completed the acquisition of 66.53 percent stake in Banque Commerciale Du Congo (BCDC), the country’s second-largest lender by assets, a deal worth $95 million.
RELATED; Equity Group announces KSh 10.6 billion Acquisition of majority stake in Congolese Bank
Equity Group then received approval from the Central Bank of Congo in 2021 to merge the two subsidiaries to create Equity Banque Commercial du Congo (Equity BCDC), forming a group institution with assets worth $11.4 billion.
Customers in DRC now have access to higher credit limits to grow and expand their business ventures while serving markets such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Rwanda, and Ethiopia.
The demand for electric cars has driven global commodity prices of some of these raw materials such as coltan and cobalt therefore changing DR Congo’s current accounts position from a deficit to a surplus, driven by the demand for electric cars. Congo accounts for 70 percent of the world’s coltan and cobalt supply in addition to having the largest and highest quality of copper reserves globally.
With DRC’s recent move to join the East African Community, Equity Bank CEO believes that growth of the bank will be driven by DRC going forward.
“That risk we took seems to be paying off big time on two accounts. One, we have the largest national banking infrastructure – a challenger status because the Congolese banks are still in their 1980s, and here is a bank with the latest technology, policy skills, competence and culture, and financial capability. It has positioned us to start with a 26 percent market share. We enjoy the economies of scale and size. DRC has challenged Kenya and is 40 percent of the bank in Kenya that we built over 38 years, in just seven years.” says Dr James Mwangi, the Equity Group CEO in an interview with the East African.
The CEO notes that they want to support companies operating in DRC to help them convert raw minerals to final products.
“We want people like Musk to do it so that he doesn’t import cobalt and copper but batteries and wires from DRC at the same price he’s been buying them from China.” he says.
If the plan is well executed, this could transform DRC into an economic powerhouse while lifting millions of the country’s citizens out of extreme poverty.
READ; Equity Group Announces KSh678 Billion Stimulus for Regional Economic Recovery
