KENYA – Struggling Spire Bank, a subsidiary of the giant Mwalimu National Sacco has picked Fredrick Omondi Nyasaka as its new head of finance and administration.

Nyasaka joins the lender from Bank of Africa (BOA) where he headed the bank’s finance and internal audit departments.

The new finance chief holds over 18 years of experience in the banking sector having held various roles within audit and finance in KCB, Equity, NCBA and Sidian banks, all in Kenya.

The new finance chief will be tasked with firming up the bank’s operations which remain bedevilled by over-arching challenges including high loan defaults and a bloated funding structure.

“Nyasaka comes at a time when the bank is at its recovery phase. We believe his extensive background in banking and strong leadership experience will be of great importance as we embark on our five-year recovery phase to return the bank into profitability,” said Spire Bank Acting Managing Director Brian Kilonzo.

“We believe his extensive background in banking and strong leadership experience will be of great importance as we embark on our five-year recovery phase to return the bank into profitability”

Brian Kilonzo – Ag CEO, Spire Bank

In March 2021, the lender reported a tripling of its full year loss to US$12.2 million for the financial year ending December 2020 from a lower US$4.4 million loss of a similar period on the back of the contraction of key revenue streams.

Interest related expenses usurped total interest income dragging the bank to a first US$1.02 million operating loss.

Meanwhile, the bank’s gross non-performing loans (NPLs) jumped to US$25.2 million surpassing the lender’s net loan book of US$24.2 million in 2020.

Mwalimu Sacco members, the bank’s majority shareholders, have been pushing to dispose the bank to a new investor to cut themselves off from the loss making entity which has since wiped out their initial capital investment.

Spire bank has eaten up US$78.3 million in shareholder funds from accumulated losses to December 2020 to include US$54.1 million in both assigned and paid up capital.

Additionally, the lender is in breach of most of its regulatory thresholds including those on core capital and liquidity.

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