This archive report was first published on 2 November 2019.
Published on November 2, 2019, Kenyan banking elite, including President Kenyatta's family and Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi, have seen their fortunes increase by Sh1 billion each within two weeks, following a push to remove the cap on commercial lending rates.
According to Business Daily, the value of Mwangi's five percent share in Equity Bank gained Sh1.6 billion after President Uhuru declined to assent to the Finance Bill 2019 and asked MPs to remove the cap on lending rates.
The Kenyatta family's 13.2 percent stake in NCBA Group increased by Sh1.08 billion, pushing their total wealth in the bank to Sh7.7 billion. NCBA was formed as a result of a merger between the NIC Bank and Kenyatta family-owned CBA Group.
The Ndegwa family, which controls 12 percent of the merged bank, saw their share expand by Sh1 billion, putting their combined wealth in NCBA at Sh6.8 billion.
Kenyan bank shares further rallied on Wednesday after Parliament's Finance Committee agreed to support President Kenyatta's memorandum calling for the removal of the interest cap introduced in 2016.
Investment bank AIB Capital noted, 'We expect banking stocks to rally as their profitability prospects improve following the removal of rate caps.'
Equity's share rose 23.6 percent over the two weeks to close trading at Sh46.50 on Thursday, while Barclays Kenya jumped 19.3 percent to trade at Sh13.30. KCB Group gained 21.5 percent, NCBA (16.3 percent) and Co-operative Bank (16.9 percent).
