Sustainability and Reporting

Absa Kenya announced its half-year 2025 results, reporting a nine percent rise in profit after tax to KSh 11.7 billion despite a drop in revenue. CFO Yusuf Omari highlighted how strategic repositioning is preparing the bank for a rebound in lending.

Stanbic Bank posted a Ksh 6.5 billion profit after tax for the first half of 2025, a nine percent year-on-year decline amid lower interest income and low FX activity. Chief finance and value officer Dennis Musau aims to lift performance in the second half by increasing lending volumes and using recent investments to generate higher returns.

Kenya’s Affordable Housing Programme introduced a reduced corporate tax rate of 15 percent for real estate developers who complete and hand over at least 100 residential units annually. While this incentive aims to boost investor returns and scale up housing supply, Mi Vida Homes CFO Solomon Nzomo argues that policy unpredictability and bureaucratic hurdles have limited its effectiveness.

EABL has announced a Ksh12.2 billion full-year profit after tax, marking a 12 percent increase from the previous year. Group CFO Risper Genga Ohaga speaks to CFO East Africa about the strategies at play.

At the 2025 CFO East Africa ESG Summit held on 10 July, the theme of financing cut across all discussions. While ESG frameworks continue to evolve, the actual flow of capital tells a more complicated story where large firms edge ahead and smaller players risk being left behind.

The second annual CFO ESG Summit saw finance leaders from across East Africa come together at the Emara Ole Sereni in Nairobi to explore the CFO’s role in ESG. Against the backdrop of a changing finance function, they discussed the sustainability imperative, sharing common points of concern.

CFOs in Africa are uniquely positioned to drive financial resilience, operational efficiency, and sustainability through energy intelligence systems (EIS), writes East African Power CFO Shereena Wilson.

Oracle finance director for Sub Saharan and South Africa Dorothy Sagwe, MTN Rwanda CFO Dunstan Stober, Zep Re CFO Dr Rachael Gitonga, and Dolphin Professional Services CFO Noel Ngonyani offer insights into the challenges and opportunities they have encountered in aligning financial strategy with sustainability goals, highlighting how CFOs can adopt environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles for long-term profitability.

Safaricom CFO Dilip Pal delves into the company’s strategies for managing foreign exchange risks, diversifying revenue, balancing major investments, and delivering customer value.

For Dilip Pal, climate investment means aligning technology with sustainability while empowering communities to build resilience, because when people and businesses thrive, so does the planet. In his remarks at the United Nations Global Leadership Summit 2024, the Safaricom CFO called for a people-centred approach to innovation for climate action.

Edward Kerich is a partner at PwC in Kenya with responsibility for Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) advisory. He took time to speak to CFO East Africa about the ESG landscape in the region, including the challenges and opportunities of sustainable practices and reporting.

At a recent financial results briefing, David Abwoga, the director of finance of NCBA banking group, celebrated the contribution of the banking group’s subsidiaries outside of Kenya to the group’s profit after tax.

Lawrence Kimathi, the group FD of KCB, has described the banking group’s financial results for the year ended December 2023 as a mixed bag. Lawrence celebrated the growth in the balance sheet with both loans advanced and customer deposits showing marked increases. He however lamented the increase in non-performing loans (NPL) stock from Ksh 161 billion to Ksh 208 billion.

Yusuf Omari, the finance director of Absa Bank Kenya, boasts an illustrious 20-year career in the banking sector, clearly demonstrating his deep-rooted expertise in financial management and strategic leadership. He recently unpacked the bank's full financial year results.

At a recent results briefing, Fred Nshekanabo, the CFO of Tanzania’s largest bank CRDB, celebrated the growth recorded with respect to loans to small and medium-sized entities (SMEs). The financial results for the bank for the year ended 31 December 2023 shows a diversified split.

MTN Uganda's financial results for the year ended 31 December 2023 "demonstrate resilience in challenging trade conditions" and "showcase robust performance driven by executional excellence and effective capital allocation", according to CFO Andrew Bugembe.

Flavia Nalubbo, the head of Finance for Liquid Intelligent Technologies in Uganda, has spent the bulk of her nearly one-and-a-half decade professional career in the telecoms sector.

Having a commercial and strategy background enabled Peter Ndegwa to be a different finance leader than a typical CFO. Being in a number of functions before becoming head of Safaricom was also very useful in his transition to CEO.

It was during his first posting in Kigali that CFO Shaswat Karki became enamoured with Rwanda's people, beauty and systems - and it would be the same factors that drew him back to Africa to lead the finance function at Karan Petroleum.

Kenyan CFOs put their gardening skills to the test when they responded to the call from the Kenyan government to participate in national tree-planting, during the unexpected special public holiday on 13 November 2023, which was dedicated to the cause.