Kenya's Banking Rockstar

Who is Dr. Patrick Ngugi Njoroge?

Patrick Ngugi Njoroge is Kenya’s 9th Central Bank Governor. He is an avid member of Opus Dei (one of the institutions of the Roman Catholic Church, which teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity). Given his faith, He has shocked many by being the first in such a position of power to turn down perks from the said position. He refused the Mansion in Nairobi’s Muthaiga where he would have been a neighbour to the Former-President Mwai Kibaki, the Former Attorney General Charles Njojo and other elite individuals. He also turned down the luxury fleet of cars and the guarded escort.

That in itself is extraordinary in Africa. In many ways he is the hope of an evolved mind-set in the modern African leader.

Before we proceed, the answer is yes! We do appreciate the irony in calling a man of faith, a ‘Rock-star’.

Early Life & Education

He was born in Kenya around the year 1961, and not much is known from his early childhood. He joined the prestigious Mang’u High School (between the years 1973-1976) for his O-level education, after which he attended Strathmore College for his A-level studies. In 1979 he was accepted at the University of Nairobi, and he graduated with a bachelor of arts in Economics in 1983. He continued his studies there and in 1985 he graduated with a Masters in Economics from the University of Nairobi. He didn’t stop there though; he went to Yale University where he graduated with a Doctor in Philosophy in Economics.

Career

He started out as a planning officer with the Kenyan Ministry of Planning in 1985. He later decided to put his talents to good use and in 1993 he shifted to

the Kenyan Ministry of Finance as an economist, but this only lasted a little more than a year. He was scooped up by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) mid-1995. He seemed to enjoy working, learning and growing there because he stuck around until 2015. He first moved from the position of an economist to senior economist. He made his way up the ranks until he became the Advisor to the Deputy Director of the IMF in 2012. He held this position until June 2015 when he was nominated by President Uhuru Kenyatta to take up the role of Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya.

Still awake?! …Good!

Jokes aside though, he’s had a tremendous career so far.

Why Dr. Patrick Njoroge deserves this ‘Rock-Star’ status.

October 2015, just a few months after he took office, The Central bank of Kenya placed the Imperial bank under receivership. Then again in April 2016, Chase bank was put under receivership. (Receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"— especially in cases where a company cannot meet financial obligations or enters bankruptcy.)

This was a very clear statement from the new Central bank Governor, and the message was ‘There’s a new Sheriff in Town!’ “Totally devoid of ego and instinctively averse to self-advertisement” is how a senior Treasury official and long-serving central banker described him but his gentle demeanour and humility are never to be mistaken for weakness.

Just ask the of currency trader that drew the short stick and had to sit across from him and explain the reason behind his speculations. Governor Dr Njoroge has always believed in data that drives decisions. And when no data could be presented to support the trader’s speculations, the governor held the trader’s hands to the fire. He berated the ‘poor’ trader and told him to keep his speculations to himself.

CBK Governor Patrick Njoroge

Under his governorship it isn’t advisable to loosely speculate about anything when it comes to the markets. Worse still, do not unfoundedly speculate about the Kenyan Shilling. He has always been patriotic that way. He’s always done whatever it takes to protect the Kenyan Shilling. This involves making sure that the Kenyan shilling is within the inflation targets of the Central bank.

He has also protected against a strong dollar. Many people in the country complain about the dollar exchange rate being over 100 shillings, but to put this to perspective you have to compare how the Kenyan shilling is performing compared to other world currencies with respect to the dollar. Some

Currencies were inflated by over 400%.

We should however pause for a minute, and ask ourselves who’s really to blame here. Is the Shilling getting weaker or is the dollar getting stronger? The behavior of the dollar has been called to question by many central banks around the world.

The European Central bank has begun to replace the unstable dollar with the more stable Chinese Yuan. This move speaks volumes about how the rest of the world feels about the dollar. Whether or not Kenya does the same is down to Governor Dr. Njoroge.

Kenya is in safe hands. Dr. Njoroge has always had Kenya’s best banking interests at heart. Yes that was a pun, but there’s some truth to it; He spoke out against the capping of interest rates saying that they’d discourage banks from lending.

The great governor’s action’s to clean

up banking in Kenya have stood out like a light on a hill and the whole world recognized his efforts. In May 2016, he was recognized as the Central Bank Governor of the year at the African Banker Award held during the African Development Bank (AfDB) annual meeting in Lusaka, Zambia.

Later in 2016, he received the Global Markets Central Banker Governor of the Year award for sub-Saharan Africa during the IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington, DC.

A UK publication exclusively for bankers has named him as the 2018 Central Banker of the Year, in Africa.

“Since being appointed as central bank governor in July 2015, he has acted swiftly to clean up the country’s banking sector, improve supervision and guidance measures, and spearhead efforts to position Kenya as a hub for green finance,” said the magazine.

We appreciate his revolutionary approach to Central Banking. He has always been an independent thinker and his ability to not be swayed is to be admired. In This way he rebelled against the norm and that’s why we chose to name him ‘Kenya’s Banking Rock-Star’.◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊