Keeping it in the Family, how banks are building intergenerational wealth

Written by Oral East Africa

For Family Bank, its celebration of forty years is being marked by paying homage to the first businesses they helped nurture that have grown into mid-sized companies and are now being handed over to a new generation.

Growing Kenyan businesses is a difficult task with a huge number of small and medium enterprises failing within their first few years of operations.

About 40 percent of SMEs collapse within their first year, around 60 percent fail by the end of the second year and nearly 80 percent shut down before their fifth anniversary.

This usually stems from challenges like poor management, lack of access to financing, and high operational costs, which require a financial partner that is patient enough to help small businesses carry their visions through.

But Family Bank knows this very well. Because it is these small businesses that gave Family Bank a shot back in when Family Finance Building Society was set up in 1984.

Their first choice of customer was the retail client segment, where they hoped to build a niche market of small businesses that had been overlooked by bigger banks.

Those small businesses are now grown and most are shifting gears as the youthful generation rises to take over management and to focus on a new Gen Z demographic for growth.

Bank and customers are both witnessing their own transformation, moving from the rich legacy of its founder Titus Kiondo Muya, popularly known as TK, into youthful management cultivated in the culture and vision of the institution.

The bank is having to rapidly adapt to a future that will be shaped by AI, big data, digital transformation, ESG values, ecosystem banking, innovation, and strategic partnerships, and wants to help their customers adapt even as they grow bigger into the future.

During its 40-year anniversary celebration last year, the Bank used the occasion to show stakeholders its evolution towards this new world guided by experienced hands.

The lender recently picked Mr Muema, a non-executive director, to head the Board as the chairman. He has served the Family Bank Board as a Non-Executive Director since 2017. The seasoned player in the industry with over 30 years of financial experience and over 15 years in insurance and pensions gives the lender steady hands with a long-term view and a well-leveraged rolodex.

Family Bank also demonstrated its long legacy of past leadership, standing by to offer guidance. In attendance during the gala dinner event was also the Former Family Bank Chairman, Dr. Wilfred Kiboro, Family Bank Board Directors, Executive Committee, staff and The Family Group Foundation Board Directors.

This experience with the youthful management of Family Bank Chief Executive Officer Nancy Njau who has risen through the ranks from management trainee to lead the institution.