Cooperative Bank Group CEO Dr. Gideon Muriuki is this Friday set to be conferred with a third honorary doctorate in recognition of his contribution to the financial services industry.
Dr. Muriuki will be conferred the Doctorate of Humane Letters (Honoris Causa) –DLitt, by the Africa International University in Nairobi.
In 2011, the Cooperative Bank Group CEO was conferred his first honorary doctorate by Kabarak University in Business Leadership and in February this year, he received a second honorary doctorate from the Co-operative University of Kenya.
The citation for Dr. Muriuki by Africa International University, reads in part: “In his illustrious career in the banking sector spanning over three decades, Dr. Gideon Muriuki, a Fellow of the Kenya Institute of Bankers has had a great impact on the banking sector in ways that have positively impacted many lives.
“His Transformational Agenda has seen the growth and market positioning of the Group as a successful Universal Bank offering the full range of banking services including retail and business banking; corporate & institutional banking; SME banking; co-operatives banking; fund management; corporate finance & advisory services, but with a critical focus on economic empowerment of the co-operative movement that is the bedrock of the bank.”
The Africa International University has feted the Cooperative Bank Group CEO for steering the lender out of loss-making two decades ago to profitability.
“The business turnaround of Co-op Bank is a celebration of Dr. Muriuki’s leadership, who has invested in great teamwork in a ‘faith’-based environment. He was appointed CEO amidst shareholder revolt following an historic Ksh 2.3 Billion loss that the bank reported in Year 2001.
“Despite a legacy of formidable challenges including huge levels non-performing loans, weak management controls and fierce competition in the industry, Dr Muriuki progressively steered the bank out of near-collapse to achieve record profitability,” reads the citation.
Dr. Muriuki is among graduands who will be conferred various academic certificates during the 37th graduation ceremony of Africa International university to be held this Friday at the institution’s Karen campus.
Here is the full citation;
CITATION ON DR. GIDEON MURIUKI, CBS, MBS ON HIS CONFERMENT OF THE DOCTOR OF HUMANE LETTERS (HONORIS CAUSA) – DLITT. OF AFRICA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY AT NAIROBI, KENYA ON 4TH NOVEMBER 2022
Dr. Gideon Muriuki – CBS, MBS a transformational corporate leader, a career banker, a quintessential co-operator, a faith-inspired model leader of outstanding stature in Kenya’s corporate domain.
Dr. Gideon Muriuki was born on the 1st of September 1964, to Ben Muriuki Gakenge and Beatrice Muthoni Muriuki in Mung’aria village in Tetu, Nyeri County.
He is the firstborn among three children to parents who were business people. He was thus born and raised in a hardworking, loving, God-fearing, and supportive family environment, virtues that have had an immense influence on his character.
Born in a family that was conscious of the benefits of education, Dr. Gideon Muriuki started off his education in 1970 at the tender age of six years when he joined a local ordinary Nursery School in Kaigonde village. He later joined Kaigonde Primary School from 1971 to 1974 before transferring to Kiganjo Primary School from 1975 to 1977, thereafter sitting for his Certificate of Primary Education (CPE) in 1977.
Having passed his CPE, Dr. Gideon Muriuki joined and undertook his ‘O’ Level education at Kagumo High School from 1978 – 1981 and sat his Kenya Certificate of Education (KCE) in 1981. He proceeded for his ‘A’ Level education at the same school – Kagumo High School from 1981 to 1983 and sat for his KACE in 1983.
Upon successful completion of ‘A’ Level education, Dr. Gideon Muriuki joined the University of Nairobi in 1985, graduating from the University in 1988 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics.
Upon completing his university education, Gideon Muriuki started his career in the banking sector in 1989 when he was recruited as a Graduate Trainee at Barclays Bank of Kenya, where he served until 1992.
He then moved to Standard Chartered Bank where he worked from 1992 to 1996. Having settled in employment in the highly prestigious banking sector, Gideon Muriuki on 28th May 1994 married Joyce Wanjiku Muriuki, with whom he has five children.
In his illustrious career in the banking sector spanning over three decades, Dr. Gideon Muriuki, a Fellow of the Kenya Institute of Bankers has had a great impact on the banking sector in ways that have positively impacted many lives.
His Transformational Agenda has seen the growth and market positioning of the Group as a successful Universal Bank offering the full range of banking services including retail and business banking; corporate & institutional banking; SME banking; co-operatives banking; fund management; corporate finance & advisory services, but with a critical focus on economic empowerment of the co-operative movement that is the bedrock of the bank.
The business turnaround of Co-op Bank is a celebration of Dr. Muriuki’s leadership, who has invested in great teamwork in a ‘faith’-based environment. He was appointed CEO amidst shareholder revolt following an historic Ksh 2.3 Billion loss that the bank reported in Year 2001.
Despite a legacy of formidable challenges including huge levels, non-performing loans, weak management controls and fierce competition in the industry, Dr Muriuki progressively steered the bank out of near-collapse to achieve record profitability, as reflected in these performance indicators recorded under his watch;
- From a huge loss of Kshs 2.3 Billion in 2001, the bank reported a
Profit of Shs. 22.6 billion for Year 2021, the best
performance ever by the Bank. - Total assets have increased from Ksh 24 Billion in 2001, to over Ksh 600 billion today.
- Customers have increased from 125,000 in 2001, to over 9 million.
- Service Network has increased from 27 branches and 3 ATMs in year 2001, to 180 branches in Kenya, 4 in South Sudan, 589 ATMs and
over 25,000 Co-op Kwa Jirani agency banking outlets today. - Loans and Advances to customers have increased from Ksh 15 billion in 2001, to over Kshs 330 billion.
- Customer deposits have increased from Kshs 17 billion in 2001, to
over Ksh 420 billion today.
Dr. Gideon Muriuki in his transformation agenda has maintained a strong belief in the great potential of the cooperative movement to deliver inclusive growth and shared prosperity for all.
Effective transformational leaders like Dr Muriuki are skilled at motivating employees to perform in ways that create meaningful change. Their style of leadership is able to transform their employees’ personal values and self-concept into a higher level of organizational purpose and goals.
The Co-operative Bank of Kenya is now supporting wholesale and retail banking linkages with the over 15-million-member co-operative movement through the over 22,000 co-operative societies that cut across every sector of the economy in Kenya.
To ensure the long-term sustainability of the Co-operative movement, Dr. Muriuki in 2003 established Coop Consultancy Services Limited, a consultancy company wholly-owned by the Bank.
The Co-op Consultancy team of over 20 consultants has executed about 1,000 mandates in the last five years, which has helped co-operatives not only adopt viable operating models but also become more competitive in the marketplace.
The Co-operative Bank of Kenya has also invested in the training of co-operative leaders and management, with over 26,000 members attending short-term courses in the last five years.
Evidently, Kenya’s cooperative sector is the strongest on the continent and which is a key player in the country’s economy, controlling about 43 per cent of Kenya’s gross domestic product (GDP). In its quest for transformation, under Dr. Muriuki’s leadership, Co-op Bank embarked on an efficiency and growth project that began in 2014 and which continues to be a key strategic enabler in every area of its business.
To create “The Future we want’, as a financial services firm, the Bank became inclined towards being driven by the desire to enhance financial inclusion and help millions achieve their ambitions by fulfilling their financial services needs in a responsible and sustainable manner.
The Cooperative Bank Group has continued with a strategy for continued deepening and dominance in its domain market segment while harnessing sustainable opportunities for expansion to other services like BancAssurance and Leasing business which are being done through its various subsidiaries including Kingdom Bank Limited.
Kingdom Bank Limited is a fully-fledged Commercial Bank, licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Kenya, with over 444,000 customers in 17 branches. AIU, therefore, recognizes and celebrates the remarkable story of an institutional transformation in the leadership of Dr. Muriuki. When the Co-operative Bank of Kenya decided to list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2008, Dr. Muriuki structured a unique shareholding structure of the bank post-IPO that ensured that the co-operative identity and control of the bank would not change following the IPO.
This guarantees that the bank will remain a ‘co-operators bank’ into the future. This reflects a good sense of his practice of a stakeholder perspective of corporate governance, which focuses on the effect of corporate activity on all identifiable stakeholders of an enterprise. Stakeholders governance is an approach that emphasizes that corporate managers and directors ought to take into consideration the interests of each stakeholder in its governance process.
Dr. Gideon Muriuki has demonstrated a sincere desire to deliver inclusive growth through the co-operative movement by strengthening the bonds of partnership between apex co-operative institutions in Kenya. He solidly supported the recapitalization of CIC Insurance Group which is majority-owned by the co-operative movement, with Co-op Bank as the largest and strategic shareholder in CIC with a 24.8% stake.
The strategic business relationship between the Co-operative Bank of Kenya and CIC Group has significantly boosted the shared interests of the two partners. Inevitably, the extension of this Co-op Bank-CIC partnership to other countries in Africa will foster a much-needed revival and recovery of co-operative insurance across Africa.
Co-op Bank has also maintained linkages with the Co-operative University of Kenya, a premier institution of higher learning in cooperative training, research, and consultancy.
Dr. Muriuki has greatly supported the recovery of agricultural marketing co-operatives, especially coffee societies which had long-suffered the effects of the 1990’s global price collapse. He submitted Structured Debt Relief Proposals to the Government, achieving a write-off of the massive legacy debts that coffee co-operatives owed Co-op Bank and the World Bank.
The 2006 debt relief by the Government of Kenya offered a historic relief to coffee societies, enabling them to recover and continue to support many households and the rural economy.
In addition, Dr. Gideon Muriuki as Group CEO, Co-op Bank supported the establishment for the first time of a licensed coffee marketing company wholly-owned by small-holder coffee societies, called the Kenya Co-operatives Coffee Exporters Limited (KCCE).
It should be noted that KCCE has greatly supported coffee co-operatives to take greater control of the coffee value chain. This has significantly impacted the coffee trade, enabling farmers to earn a better return on their produce.
KCCE plans to extend this successful value-chain model to other cash crops produced by small-holder farmers. In 2007, in his focus to supporting the cooperative movement, the bank invested in a switch, named Coopswitch, which interlinks the banking systems of Saccos with those of the Bank. This enables SACCO members to access the Visa network worldwide.
Since the inception of the Coopswitch, members of Saccos are now able to enjoy the convenience of easy access to funds. SACCOs have also benefited immensely as they are now able to retain both liquidity, and also the loyalty of their members who no longer have to open accounts with banks in order to access their funds from any part of the world.
Co-operative Bank recognised early that significant sections of the economy, especially the informal businesses and SMEs were financially excluded, and set out to invest in a financial deepening strategy to embrace them.
The bank became an early pioneer in crafting products and opening bank branches in locations then considered not only unbankable but also highly vulnerable to insecurity, beginning with Kariobangi, followed by Kawangware, Kangemi, Githurai, NACICO Plaza on Landhies Road near the Bus Station, Kibera among others.
The Bank designed and offered a unique product package customised to the needs of those markets, which had both a savings component, which we named ‘Haba na Haba’ (of course a play on the Kiswahili wise saying ‘Haba na haba hujaza kibaba’).
The loan component was named ‘Biashara Plus Loan’. That was 25 years ago. Dr. Muriuki’s financial deepening strategy became successful beyond even the most optimistic projections.
The branches became so popular with customers that the bank ran out of space within months of opening and had to seek additional space in those same locations.
Today, Co-op Bank under Dr. Muriuki has built a most compelling value proposition for the Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) that ranks us as the leading bank in that space. In the first six months of this year alone, Co-op Bank has disbursed Kshs. 12.6 Billion to MSMEs through the Mobile E-Credit solution.
The bank is now the leading bank in supporting MSMEs receive Lipa Na Mpesa payments, which saw the bank process in excess of Sh 500 Billion last year while this year the bank is processing an average of Sh 65 Billion Lipa na Mpesa payments every month.
The Bank has notably special packages for the MSME business segments. This great innovation places him within the ambit innovative leaders. Innovation leadership is a philosophy and technique, which combines different leadership styles to influence employees to produce creative ideas, products and services.
The key role in the practice of innovation is the innovation leader like Dr. Muriuki. It may come as a surprise to many to know that Co-op Bank during the tenure of Dr. Gideon Muriuki pioneered mobile banking in Kenya in 2003.
The bank launched the product that enabled customers to make balance enquiries, send basic queries and also pay for utilities such as electricity bills to Kenya Power from the mobile phone. A whole four years ahead of the arrival of M-pesa!
Dr. Muriuki has strongly championed the institutionalization of sustainability principles and practices in Co-op Bank, and in the process elevated the Bank to become a true leader of sustainable finance in Kenya.
Co-op Bank has financed the largest portfolio of sustainable finance projects in Kenya, a notable one being a solar energy project for Strathmore University that today generates energy that powers the entire university and even sells some surplus power to the national grid, becoming the first private solar project in Kenya to do so.
In addition, the Bank has funded the Kenya Tea Development Agency’s (KTDA’s) transition away from the dependency on firewood as the fuel for use in the process of curing of tea leaves, towards the use of clean energy by way of installation of mini-hydro-electric power plants, a case in point being the Gura Power Plant in Tetu – Nyeri which today generates sufficient energy to power three KTDA factories, thereby saving the thousands of trees that would otherwise have been cut to power the factories. Co-op Bank has been severally recognised in this regard, including being named the best bank in sustainable finance three times in five years, including this year,2022.
In 2007, Dr. Muriuki championed the establishment of the Co-operative Bank Foundation to serve as a corporate social investment vehicle for the Bank.
The Foundation has provided full secondary and university education scholarships to gifted but needy students from all regions of Kenya. The program, which is fully funded by the Bank, has benefitted 9,553 students since its inception.
The sustained profitability of the Bank under the leadership of Dr. Gideon Muriuki has also ensured a consistent dividend pay-out to shareholders, with co-operatives benefitting the most as they own 64.5% of the bank.
In the last six years, Kenyan co-operatives have received in excess of KES 21.5 billion in dividends from Co-op Bank, which is a most attractive return on their original investment in the Bank.
Under the leadership of Dr. Gideon Muriuki, the Co-operative Bank of Kenya has demonstrated sincere concern for the community in pandemic times. In the face of unprecedented disruptions to households and businesses occasioned by the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Co-operative Bank took a different posture.
Aware that the dividend is a critical lifeline to many co-operatives in Kenya, the Bank bucked the industry trend and proceeded to pay the dividend, despite the overwhelming trend by many banks and other listed companies to withhold dividends.
Furthermore, Co-op Bank paid the same level of dividend for Years 2020 and 2021 amounting to Ksh 11.7 billion, similar to what was paid out before the Pandemic, thereby offering a most timely relief and ‘stimulus package’ to co-operatives and other shareholders throughout the country.
Co-op Bank was able to sustain the generous dividend payout even in a lean Pandemic year on account of the strong capital buffers that the bank has built over many years.
Co-op Bank was among the early contributors to the Covid-19 fundraising effort and led the private sector with a Kshs 100 million donation to the private sector-led kitty that was created to fund the purchase of testing kit, face masks, ventilators and other resources that were urgently required to contain the pandemic.
The great successes of the Co-operative Bank of Kenya under the leadership of Dr. Gideon Muriuki has enabled the Bank to win key awards over the last two decades. This includes the Overall Winner of Sustainable Finance Catalyst Award of the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) (Years 2017, 2019 & 2022); the Co-op Bank subsidiary company Co-optrust Investments Services won the Best Asset Manager in Kenya (2021); won the Best Bank in Kenya award in the African Banking Awards 2020 organized by EMEA Finance for four years in a row (2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021); Overall Winner in Environmental Sustainability Reporting at the 2019 East African Financial Reporting (FiRe) Awards.
At a personal level, the approach, innovation, and the historic turnaround of Co-op Bank has earned Dr. Gideon Muriuki wide recognition and acclaim around the world. This has enabled him to win several key awards: EMEA Awards (African Banking Awards), named The Best Bank CEO in Africa (2021); the overall winner of the 2016 Utumishi Bora Awards organized by the Kenya Christian Professionals Forum; honored by the Evangelical Alliance of Kenya with the 2016 ‘Lion of Judah’ award (2016); awarded the coveted ‘CEO of the Year – Africa 2014’ in the 2014 International Banker awards; Recognized with ‘Distinguished Leadership Award’ by Africa International University (July 2011); conferred a Doctorate (Honoris causa) in Business Leadership by Kabarak University (November 2011) and a second Doctorate of Humane Letters (Honoris causa)- DLITT by The Co-operative University of Kenya (February 2022).
Dr. Muriuki, in recognition of his historic turnaround of the Co-operative Bank of Kenya, has received key decorations from Presidents of Kenya: Order of the Grand Warrior (OGW in 2005), Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS in 2011) from retired President Mwai Kibaki; and Chief of the Order of the Burning Spear (CBS in 2018) from His Excellency President Uhuru Kenyatta.
He was also awarded a decoration of Chevalier de L’orde National du Burkina Faso (The National Order of Burkina Faso) by the President of Burkina Faso in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of rural finance in Africa (2006).
At AIU, we understand strategic entrepreneurship to be a conscious managerial leadership approach that embraces innovations within a business enterprise that involves the combination and integration of opportunity and advantage-seeking operations and leadership behaviours.
In this sense, strategic entrepreneurship, which AIU discerns in his leadership and governance strategy, focuses on the transformation of a business entity through innovative leadership. Dr Muriuki has embraced and internalized principles and practices of good corporate governance and enterprise sustainability.
Within the framework of strategic thinking, he has led a management team at Cooperative Bank that has upheld the Bank as an entity that highly regards its vision and mission and which also ensures that the institution has the best leadership to uphold corporate governance principles and values.
His style of leadership has over the years advocated for and reflected the potential of spiritual leadership in workplace institutional governance and management practices.
In essence, he has demonstrated a blend of transformational and servant leadership styles that are clearly enriched with his respect and application of Biblical principles and values.
The effect of this has been giving a case of how spiritual leadership can be a significant contributor to successful modern corporate enterprise management. He has clearly demonstrated over the years that good leadership is service-oriented.
As exemplified in his highly functional Co-op Bank leadership team, the basis of service-based leadership is prioritizing the needs of the team before your own as a leader. He is a highly selfless leader who has understood the principle of the power of giving as enunciated by Mark Sanborn, a renowned scholar of leadership.
Having served at the helm of the Bank for over twenty years, he has embodied and has demonstrated not only the power of giving but also the power of self-mastery, the power of focus, the power of execution, the power of communication and the principle of power with the people through the exercise of grand interpersonal skills. With a profound sense of personal touch, Dr Muriuki has demonstrated an admirable sense of responsibility to create the conditions that allow employees to be successful in various situations.
His philosophy of Quietly Serving God is an outlook, which AIU recognizes and places within the realm of strategic foresight. Dr Muriuki has cultivated esteem for social capital in organizational growth and stability characterized by high levels of personal trust, organizational trust and strategic foresight that appear evident to all those who closely know him and his enthusiasm for kingdom work.
We recognize with gratitude his impact in institutions of higher learning including Africa International University where he served with various university teams in the transition of AIU from a Postgraduate theological training outfit called NEGST into a fully-fledged Chartered University. From him, we learn how an enterprise can use strategic foresight to stay ahead of the curve.
Here, then, is a transformational corporate leader who turned around the Co-operative Bank of Kenya, and to a great extent the fortunes of Kenya’s Co-operative movement, and who desires to achieve inclusive growth for the shared prosperity of all.
His tenure at the helm of the Co-operative Bank has touched and transformed the lives of millions of people through innovations in the cooperative movement in Kenya and Africa. Africa International University is proud to be associated with the qualities and achievements of Dr. Gideon Muriuki in his career and as a servant of God through many unmentionable avenues. I am therefore greatly honoured and privileged to present Dr. Gideon Muriuki, to be conferred, the Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris Causa) of Africa International University.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dr. Gideon Muriuki