Equity scoops best bank in East Africa award

PHOTO | DIANA NGILA National Bank of Kenya (NBK) CEO Munir Sheikh Ahmed displays his Chief Executive of the Year Award during the 2014 EA ceremony held at Safari Park Hotel on April 30, 2014.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• Research on various aspects conducted for one week in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda by Infotrak
• The awards, which attracted participation from other commercial banks and microfinance banks in the East African Community (EAC) countries for the first time, also saw National Bank of Kenya boss Munir Ahmed scoop the chief executive of the year award.

By JOSHUA MASINDE
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Equity Bank was ranked the best bank in East African region in this year’s Annual Banking Awards

 

The awards, which attracted participation from other commercial banks and microfinance banks in the East African Community (EAC) countries for the first time, also saw National Bank of Kenya boss Munir Ahmed scoop the chief executive of the year award.

Research firm Infotrak “talked to customers within banking halls in East Africa for a period of one week and asked them various questions,” said the firm’s chief executive officer, Ms Angela Ambitho.

The firm conducted the survey in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda to come up with findings that were used in the judging process.

SAMPLE SIZE

In Kenya, 39 banks were sampled, with a sample size of 1,515 customers; 26 banks were sampled in Uganda with a sample size of 920 customers; and 38 banks were evaluated in Tanzania with a sample size of 1,365 customers.

In Rwanda, 13 banks with a sample size of 450 customers was appraised.

“Essentially, the areas that were looked into were pretty simple. They are those areas that we felt were critical to customer satisfaction. The first one was loyalty, gauged through customer recommendation. “So, the question we asked is, would you recommend your bank to a fellow relative because it is a good bank?

“If they said ‘yes’, then we gauged that as a basis of loyalty to the bank,” said Ms Ambitho at the awards ceremony on Tuesday night.

The awards are organised annually by Think Business and are sponsored by Nation Media Group, Safaricom, MTN and Samsung.

CORPORATE IMAGE

Some of the other issues that were looked at were trust and corporate image of the bank, technology use, customer interaction with the bank, bank personnel and service delivery.

“We weighted all those indicators on a scale of 1 (not very satisfied) to 5 (extremely satisfied). Those indicators that had a higher emotional affinity were given a higher weighting. And those that we said were functional, meaning that any bank can do them because that is what they do, we gave them a low weighting,” she said.

As a judging process partner, audit firm Deloitte East Africa was charged with processing all entries from the participants across East Africa. It shortlisted, selected and constituted a panel of judges with expertise in the banking sector in various areas. 

“We were really looking at growth in loan products, growth in deposits and tremendous innovation in terms of credit and other financial services being provided to citizens of the East African Community countries,” said Ms Rose Mwaura, a partner at Deloitte, East Africa.

Diamond Trust Bank scooped the best award in customer satisfaction in Kenya, with FBME Bank topping in the same category in Tanzania, Bank of Kigali in Rwanda, and Centenary Bank in Uganda.