NCBA Group CEO John Gachora Biography & Facts

John Gachora, (born 1968, Kiambu Kenya), Group Managing Director and CEO at NCBA Group. 

Education

The 8 born in a family of 13 grew up in Gatamaiyu village in Kenya’s Central Province attended Kamahindu Primary School before joining Alliance High. While at Alliance High School, he had an opportunity to join Brooks School Andover Massachusetts United States as a high school exchange visitor. He applied to and was accepted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He earned both the Bachelor of Science and the Master of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering. 

In 2002, he received the Executive Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business. 

Career

He found employment on Wall Street with Credit Suisse, New York where he rose to become Vice President Asset Finance Division. He later worked at Bank of America’s corporate headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, rising to the rank of Managing Director – Group Head, Investment Banking. In 2009, he joined Absa Capital in Johannesburg, South Africa, growing to the rank of Chief Executive Officer of Absa Africa at Absa Group Limited, in November 2010. 

Leading Absa to the rest of Africa

As head of Absa, he was tasked with leading South Africa’s Absa Bank into the rest of the African Continent. Gachora was responsible for setting the strategy for Absa Capital’s Africa business and redefining the presence of Absa Capital and Barclays Capital on the continent. Absa is a subsidiary of Barclays Bank Plc, which holds a stake of 55.5 per cent in the group. In his new position, he was charged with expansion of his portfolios, growing business relationships through networking, impacting clients using governmental structures built and regulatory bodies on the African Continent, extending access to financial series and enabling corporate customers to do business through Absa and Barclays in Africa. Gachora was responsible for physical banks and in charge of a staff population of 2,500 and 700,000 customers. 

Appointed NCBA CEO

In November 2013, he was appointed Group Managing Director and Group CEO of NIC Bank Group, a position he still occupies. At NCBA, his main focus has been to build a highly responsive, customer centered bank of the future in Kenya and rest of Africa and this journey led to the birth of NCBA bank i.e., the merger between NIC and Commercial Bank of Africa which took effect on October 1, 2019 where all subsidiaries operate under a Non-Operating Holding Company, NCBA Group Plc. 

The combined entity, NCBA Group, has a market share of 9.9 percent and a customer base of over 40 million in four East African countries. As of June 2019, CBA had a market share of 5.6 percent while NIC commanded 4.3 percent. After the merger, there was the business of integrating systems and Gachora went for the merger of two core banking systems and this bore fruit in a big way.

Profits amidst the Covid-19 pandemic

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic picking and ravaging businesses worldwide in the better part of 2020, the bank made a net operating profit of 115 percent and operating income surged to 97 percent respectively comparing it to the previous year 2019. The bank made a profit of 2.2 billion Kenya shillings in the year 2019 but went slightly up in 2020 to 2.4 billion despite the challenges wrought by coronavirus. Gachora talks and thinks of the future of the bank where the customer and specifically the millennial knows where the physical branch is and can get sales and advisory services. 

Trivia

The NCBA CEO is married and has three children- 11 year daughter, 10 year old boy and the last born is 7 years old.