When Standard Chartered Bank mapped out branches to close down some six years ago, as it pushed through its digital strategy, Kakamega branch was one of them. But when it came down to actualising the plan, the branch somehow survived. A number of other branches were axed including Bungoma, Kisii, Kitengela and Warwick Branch in 2018.
The management said the move was geared towards developing the banks’ online and mobile channels to deliver easy, convenient banking to its clients. Globally, the StanChart had adopted a lean strategy of trimming branches to cut costs and grow revenues as customers began to appreciate technology’s role in easing up banking.
Just what happened in Kakamega? It emerges that a prominent business man with wealth spread across Western Kenya may have influenced StanChart management not to close the branch. Mr Ibrahim Ambwere, the Western Kenya tycoon with businesses and assets in Kakamega, Vihiga and Trans Nzoia counties, is said to have threatened to move his funds worth billions to a different bank within the town if Standard Chartered closed its branch.
Had it shut Kakamega, Mr Ambwere and other customers would have been forced to shift to ATM or mobile banking or use the Kisumu or Eldoret branches as Bungoma was also on the chopping block. Strong competition from other banks such as Equity, Co-operative, Post Bank and ABSA, among others, had piled pressure on Standard Chartered to the main town in Western Kenya.
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Mr Ambwere, like many older businesspeople and professionals, is known to have banked with Standard Chartered for decades, being among the first banks, alongside Absa Bank (formerly Barclays), to set up in Western Kenya. Mr Ambwere owns a number of prominent buildings in Kakamega and Kitale as well as Chavakali, Mmbale in Vihiga county and other small towns in these regions, which generate millions of shillings monthly in rental income. He also runs other retail and wholesale businesses.
Fearing losing this big account to rival banks, Standard Chartered was forced to reconsider the decision to close the Kakamega branch, saving many other accountholders from the inconvenience of travelling to Kisumu or having to look for alternative banks. Someone close to this matter, a prominent member of the Luhya community who hails from Kakamega, says Mr Ambwere saved many like him. “I have been banking with Standard for the last over 40 years,” said the person, who requested to remain unidentified. “I have become so used to it. It’s calm and less exposing.”
This person said he was among those who supported Mr Ambwere’s stand after Standard Chartered notified the more affluent accountholders at the branch of its imminent closure. Thanks to a single customer, the Standard Chartered Branch Kakamega in still in operation, serving thousands of others some of whom have no idea that the branch was at some point earmarked for closure.
Mr Ambwere is a low-profile businessman, who rose from humble beginnings as a carpenter to control the larger Kakamega economy. At some point he got in trouble with President Moi, in the 19080’s, when he offered to loan the government of Kenya Ksh48 million (a fortune the 1980’s standards) to pay teachers who were on strike due to delayed payments as the government was broke.
Ibrahim Ambwere was born in 1936 in Maragoli, Vihiga County-Western part of Kenya. His mother was deaf and dumb, his father left to fight in the army when he was only four years old, never to return.
In his journey of survival, Ambwere worked as a gardener in people’s farms in Maragoli Western Kenya, and later relocated to Molo in Nakuru County to work in pyrethrum farms. But he never worked in the farms for long due to incessant allergic reactions.
After that, Ambwere then met an Asian mason who employed him as a sweeper for almost ten years. The Asian gave Ambwere an old toolbox as a gift for being a committed worker. With savings and the toolbox, Ambwere began his long journey towards a new life. He started a carpentry workshop with only Ksh38 in his pocket.
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