Absa says the appointment of Sitoyo Lopokoiyit — former MD of Africa’s biggest fintech platform, M-Pesa — as head of its pan-African personal and private banking division will help it to expand in the SME sector.
The appointment of Lopokoiyit, who starts at Absa next month, was part of leadership changes made by Absa CEO Kenny Fihla to deliver on what he calls a strategy to become a more “client-centric” bank.
Fihla also poached Zaid Moola from rival Standard Bank to lead its corporate and investment banking (CIB) business.
Group FD Deon Raju told Business Times that Absa had been focusing on the top end of the agriculture sector but now planned to grow in the SME segment, which required services to be delivered efficiently, digitally and at a low cost.
“We have not had the client value propositions in there. I would say that M-Pesa, for example, had over 3-million SMEs as part of their platform. So, while Lopokoiyit is joining our personal and private bank, he will contribute more broadly to the leadership perspective of how we can win in that kind of sector,” he said.
FNB has about 1.2-million SME clients in South Africa and Nedbank and Capitec are vying for market share.
M-Pesa is a global case study in financial inclusion, inclusion of the masses at a low cost, in a digital way
— Deon Raju
Raju said Lopokoiyit had run one of the most successful fintechs on the continent.
“M-Pesa is a global case study in financial inclusion, inclusion of the masses at a low cost, in a digital way. If you go across East Africa, everyone has got the M-Pesa app, and everybody does all of their needs, not just banking needs, but broader needs, through that digital platform,” he said.
Raju said the reshuffling of Absa’s executive team would fortify its operations following a period of instability in the C-suite. Fihla took over from interim CEO Charles Russon, who was appointed when Arrie Rautenbach took early retirement.
“I think it talks about the kind of leadership [Fihla’s] looking for, leadership that knows how to win and where to win, and what that customer base needs. Understanding it at a deep level, at a micro-segment level, understanding their needs properly, and delivering solutions and services on the back of that.”
In its interim results to end-December 2025, released this week, Absa reported its return on equity (RoE) improved to 15% from 14.8% a year earlier as it inched closer to its promise to deliver RoE of 16% in 2026.
Headline earnings were up 12% year on year at R25bn. Rest of Africa grew 25% and the South African division grew 7%. The CIB segment delivered 14% earnings growth.
Keagan Higgins, an investment analyst at Anchor, said Absa had a new “jockey at the helm”.
“I think what we like at the moment is the quality of the team that Kenny is bringing in. I think over time, we will get the right people in the right places. They’re undeniably going to build a very solid business,” Higgins said. Hopefully, the CIB business would become a “juggernaut for Africa in the next couple of years”.
Raju said the CIB division’s formula for success was a diversified, pan-African model. It did not “only bank the client in South Africa” but everywhere on the continent. “And you create one solution for your clients, no matter where they bank”.
Absa’s business bank, focused on the farming sector, had not followed that strategy.
“Our business banking [division] will transform this year into a pan-Africa business,” Raju said, adding that the appointment of its head executive was imminent.
“It needs to diversify across sectors, it needs to diversify geography ... The business bank did have a tough, tough year, especially the first half. They recovered a little bit in the second half, but they are very concentrated in terms of the sectors that they focus on, and therefore are impacted when those sectors don’t do well.”
Business Times
