Jim Onyango
26 January 2010
The Financial Times of London, a global business media house, has named Kenyan CEOs -- Atul Shah of Nakumatt Holdings and James Mwangi of Equity Bank -- in a list of emerging market business leaders in the world, who have shaped economic performance in their regions.
The two have been termed leading business executives in the Financial Times Top 50 list -- a global survey that features the world's most influential businessmen -- and are the only Kenyans on the roll.
Other Africa leaders on the list include Nigeria's leading Industrialist Aliko Dangote and South Africa's business magnate Cyrille Ramaphosa Mr Shah has been honoured for "building Nakumatt stores into the biggest supermarket chain in East Africa and making it the region's most prominent connection to the world of globalised consumerism."
The executive, who was named Nakumatt's managing director in 1987, has seen the expansion of the retail chain to 19 stores in Kenya and two in Uganda and Rwanda.
"I am extremely honoured and feel privileged to feature in the Financial Times Top 50 list which in a big way encourages me to step up Nakumatt's market presence in East Africa," said Mr Shah, who described the recognition as a vote of confidence for East African economies and pledged to play a key role in deepening the regional retail market scene.
"Besides my personal pride and that of the entire Nakumatt customers and staff fraternity, such a recognition is a clear vote of confidence on the potential of East Africans," he said.
Mr Mwangi, on the other hand, was praised for transforming the lives of many people in Kenya including house helps and low income earners who have been able to borrow as little as Sh500 from the bank.
The executive joined Equity as a finance director in 1995 and has been advancing loans to the unbanked, helping ordinary people invest in farm tools, businesses and education.
"James Mwangi talks about Equity Bank's mission with an evangelical enthusiasm. He lends for profit but says he also wants to transform the lives of poor Kenyans and his bank is showing the two are compatible," said the paper.
The FT survey also names India's Ambani brothers--the world's wealthiest siblings who squabbled and split a massive business empire bequeathed to them by their late father--among the world's top business leaders.
Mukesh and Anil Ambani, who were ranked by Forbes in 2005 as the fifth and sixth richest men in the world are said to control a combined wealth of more than $80 billion
After their much publicised co-operate brawl, the Ambani brothers split the Reliance group of companies which they inherited from their father.
Mukesh took Reliance Industries while Anil got Reliance communications--India's second largest mobile phone operator.
The FT's list is dominated by business leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and other emerging market economies that have powered ahead economically over the past decade, marking a distinct shift in global power. The countries, according to FT could together outstrip the world's six biggest economies by 2039 and that China could overtake the US by 2041.