Ivy League university fetes Equity Group's James Mwangi

NAIROBI, KENYA: Equity Group Holdings, Managing Director, Dr. James Mwangi, has received a rare honor from Cornell University, a top ranked Ivy League university.

In recognition of his personal leadership drive to foster financial inclusion in Africa, Dr. Mwangi, was over the weekend accorded a rare opportunity as the first ever guest speaker to address a new high level speakers’ series at the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management (Dyson School) at Cornell University.

Dyson School, is reputed on the global business schools front for its internationally renowned areas of expertise in food and agricultural economics, management, environmental and resource economics, international and development economics. These areas of study expertise at Dyson School, work in concert to fulfill the School’s mission to inform and foster the public stewardship and private management of businesses, organizations, livelihoods, and natural resources. 

As part of its academic research initiatives, the top rated business school, has unveiled a Speaker series under the theme: Our Business is a Better World, to boost the delivery of its academic programmes. The Speaker Series at Dyson School will be periodically delivered by global captains of industry.

With the launch of the Speaker Series at Dyson School, Dr. Mwangi, arguably becomes the first African Business leader to land an inaugural Speakers slot at an Ivy League Business School. During the inaugural Speaker Series, Dr. Mwangi was at hand to plead, a case for the democratization of financial services and  delivered a presentation titled: Democratizing Access to Finance and Social Impact in Sub Sahara Africa 1984- 2014; The Case for Equity Group.

“The Equity Group, mission is centered on a commitment to transform the lives and livelihoods of our people socially and economically by availing to them modern, inclusive financial services that maximise their opportunities,” Dr. Mwangi said.

The Group, he added, has as part of its expansion strategies set out to replicate its East Africa success across the continent. As part of its Equity 3.0 Growth strategy, Dr. Mwangi reiterated plans to extend Equity Groups’ footprint across ten African countries in the next ten years.

Still within the strategy, Equity Group, he confirmed will be stepping up its efforts to deploy its mobile virtual network Equitel, which is designed as mobile banking channel.

In Kenya, Equitel, with a subscriber base of more than 1.2 million barely three months from launch, has broken ground as a compelling offering that deepens financial inclusion and broadens access by providing a seamless convergence of banking and telcom services.