The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has picked Frank Mwiti as the new chief executive effective May 2, to replace outgoing CEO Geoffrey Odundo, who exits on March 1.
To manage the transition, the NSE board has appointed its chief operating officer (COO) David Wainaina to hold the post on an interim basis between March 2 and May 1, when the new appointee will take over.
Mr Mwiti is the outgoing partner and Eastern Africa markets lead at British professional services multinational Ernst & Young (EY), where he has been leading strategic business development of the company’s assurance, tax, consulting, strategy and transaction services across the region.
“Following the completion of Mr Odundo’s tenure, the Board of Directors of the NSE is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Frank Mwiti as the new chief executive e of the NSE effective May 2, 2024, subject to appropriate regulatory approvals by the Capital Markets Authority,” said NSE Board Chair Kiprono Kittony in a statement.
“The appointment follows a comprehensive and rigorous recruitment process.”
Mr Mwiti has previously worked as a manager for banking and capital markets advisory at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and EY United Kingdom (UK), as well as an associate director for investment banking at investment banking firm UBS in the UK.
Other roles he has previously held include management consultant, investment banking at UK-based Deutsche Bank and CEO and managing director of Afrika Kapital, which he founded in the UK.
Mr Kittony said the board found his experience in frontier, emerging and developed financial markets exceptional, noting that it will play a critical role in accelerating the next phase of growth of the bourse and support the government’s capital markets agenda.
“Mr Mwiti is a dynamic and accomplished business leader with more than two decades of diverse and international professional experience in strategy, governance, business development, risk management, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and performance improvement,” said the chair.
Mr Mwiti is taking over the NSE when the bourse is facing one of its worst capital outflows as investors exit to take their stashes back to developed economies, such as the US and the UK, on the back of a promise for better returns.
NSE’s lowest moment was when it was ranked the worst-performing African bourse in the first nine months of last year in dollar returns, highlighting the impact of foreign exits and global shocks on the region’s biggest stock market.
