Business
Centenary was never mine to keep, says outgoing CEO
Kasi is embarking on a new role as the chief executive of the Centenary Group, a holding company of Centenary Bank, Centenary Bank Malawi, Centenary Technology Services, Centenary Foundation and Centenary Property Development & Management Services.
Kasi, who joined in 2010, spent his tenure defending and expanding that niche even as the bank grew large enough to open a branch catering to wealthier clients. Byekwaso says he intends to preserve rather than overhaul that model.
By: Ali Twaha, Journalist @New Vision
KAMPALA - Fabian Kasi handed over office to Godfrey Byekwaso as the new managing director at Centenary Bank, insisting that the ship was never meant to be his to keep.
“When we are given institutions to lead, we don’t own them, but rather we are supposed to steward them and ensure that we leave them in a better state than we found them,” he told a journalist at the bank headquarters in Kampala.
Kasi is embarking on a new role as the chief executive of the Centenary Group, a holding company of Centenary Bank, Centenary Bank Malawi, Centenary Technology Services, Centenary Foundation and Centenary Property Development & Management Services.
The transition caps a tenure of nearly 16 years, during which Kasi turned Centenary from a church-founded lender for the unbanked into Uganda’s largest indigenous bank, with 3.4 million customers, roughly 3,400 staff and a network of about 10,000 agents.
But Byekwaso is no outsider to the bank. He is a chartered accountant and fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
The transition caps a tenure of nearly 16 years, during which Kasi turned Centenary from a church-founded lender for the unbanked into Uganda’s largest indigenous bank, with 3.4 million customers, roughly 3,400 staff and a network of about 10,000 agents.
But Byekwaso is no outsider to the bank. He is a chartered accountant and fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
Byekwaso spent 11 years at Centenary Bank, including a long stint running its finance function, before three years running Centenary Bank Malawi, a subsidiary he found loss-making and, by his own account, left profitable.
“What excites me is having a change when everything is going well. Normally change happens when something has broken. But in our case, nothing has broken. I must thank Mr Fabian for being a good captain and handing over a ship that is not docking but rather in the water continuing to sail,” he said.
Centenary was founded by the Catholic Church in Uganda, through what is now the Episcopal Conference of Uganda, with an explicit mandate to serve customers other banks would not touch, such as small business owners, farmers, among others.
Kasi, who joined in 2010, spent his tenure defending and expanding that niche even as the bank grew large enough to open a branch catering to wealthier clients. Byekwaso says he intends to preserve rather than overhaul that model.
“What excites me is having a change when everything is going well. Normally change happens when something has broken. But in our case, nothing has broken. I must thank Mr Fabian for being a good captain and handing over a ship that is not docking but rather in the water continuing to sail,” he said.
Centenary was founded by the Catholic Church in Uganda, through what is now the Episcopal Conference of Uganda, with an explicit mandate to serve customers other banks would not touch, such as small business owners, farmers, among others.
Kasi, who joined in 2010, spent his tenure defending and expanding that niche even as the bank grew large enough to open a branch catering to wealthier clients. Byekwaso says he intends to preserve rather than overhaul that model.