When the Business Daily exclusively broke the news of Abdi Mohamed's departure from his post as chief executive officer (CEO) of Absa Bank Kenya, the reaction from the financial and banking sector was telling.
It was clearly one of the most unexpected CEO exits in Kenya’s corporate scene. Kenya has previously had its fair share of shock CEO exits, but most of these had been pre-empted in one way or another.
For example, Allan Kilavuka’s exit as CEO of Kenya Airways in late 2024 also caught the market by surprise, just as his predecessor Sebastian Mikosz's had. The shock was, however, tempered because the two KQ executives were both approaching the tail end of their respective terms, and their exits were somewhat imminent.
However, for Mr Mohamed, there weren’t any expectations of a sudden move, hence the surprise.
Hours after the news broke, I&M Bank disclosed it had poached its larger rival’s chief executive, adding even more intrigue to the developing story from Monday morning.
Many were puzzled by Mr Mohammed's exit from Absa so soon after climbing to the top office. He had only been in the Absa Bank Kenya CEO job for three years.
For him, however, it’s been a personal decision. He could have happily stayed on as a CEO for a fourth year and beyond.
“When I look at the 32-year journey, everything I have done and learnt at Absa, and in different regional markets too, I felt the timing was right to go and do something new, something different. A new way of looking at things and getting a new angle in the industry. This has been a personal decision,” he told Business Daily in an interview on Friday.
Mr Mohamed has been at Absa for over three decades and traces his beginning, not in the C-suite, but in the Northeastern town of Garissa where he first worked as a teller in the then Barclays Bank Kenya (BBK).
He dreamt of being CEO and lived it, working his way up through the organisation to lead roles in Zambia, the United Kingdom and Tanzania and finally, to be on the top step of the Kenyan unit, a role held since 2023.
But it’s not only the lucrative executive roles that awed Mr Mohamed, who reminisces of his time working in the lender’s branches on Mama Ngina’s Street, Queensway branch which also opens to Kaunda Street and visiting branches on Kimathi Street’s Eagle House and Norwich Union House, through to halls on Moi and Kenyatta Avenues. He remembers Absa Plaza, then-Barclays Plaza-all new and shiny, and at the time, referred to by just two words- ‘The Plaza’.
All this before the age of the ATM, forget the digital revolution in banking which is only a recent feature in his books, and which has been driven by the adoption of mobile and internet banking.
He does not shy away from harbouring ambitions of rising through the ranks of Absa Kenya. He started in 1994 as a bank teller in Garissa for what was the Barclays Bank of Kenya, and rose to CEO of Absa Kenya, but is never obsessed with the fairytale rise.
Drawing the analogy of a mountain climber ascending Everest’s peak, it’s all about staying in the moment, taking on one peak after the other.
Despite summiting ‘Everest’, Mr Mohamed now wants to add another peak to his ‘climbing CV’. He speaks of staying in the game even as he chases down goals.
“I generally find that for me, it’s about dealing with issues, solving problems, helping customers and colleagues, and it’s about being in the game. The peaks unlock over time. When you see a new peak, typically you think this is it, and then you get there, and you see the next peak. That has been the journey,” Mr Mohammed says.
He prides himself on leaving Absa Bank Kenya in better shape, where it is on a faster growth trajectory than before his time.
Having taken over from Jeremy Awori, who now leads the Lome-headquartered Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, Mr Mohamed has led the bank’s strategy in the ‘post-Barclays era’, helping diversify the revenue base away from the traditional lending, amplifying its bancassurance, asset management and brokerage units while also restarting the custody business.
He remains confident of the bank’s strategy, even as he heads out in search of the next mountain summit and believes his successor will do just as well.
“Absa has done this many times; it’s an old organisation that has been around for more than a century. It’s part of the normal corporate journey, and that’s why organisations spend a lot of time building succession plans, making sure that the right people are there to come in and fill the space,” Mr Mohammed says.
“I came in through a succession plan when my predecessor left, and that’s how it flows.”
