John is one among Kenya’s most celebrated bankers. Throughout a 35-year banking profession, he established himself as East Africa’s foremost company and funding banker, working with native and worldwide/world corporates which have an East African regional presence, state-owned enterprises, sovereigns, and monetary companies teams.
He has performed pivotal roles in creating regional capital markets, in establishing the regulatory frameworks underpinning these markets, and in persuading East African governments to show to native capital mobilisation to finance budgets
John has had a very shut banking relationship with the telecommunications sector relationship again to the late Nineteen Nineties, when the sector underwent the unconventional transformation that noticed the earlier monopoly, Kenya Posts & Telecommunications Company (KPTC) unbundled into discrete models, together with Telkom Kenya, Safaricom and Postal Company.
In 1998, partly as an final result of getting been concerned within the work that led to the Kenya Communications Act, John was appointed a Director of the inaugural Board on the Communications Fee of Kenya (now Communications Authority). This Board presided over the unbundling of KPTC and, amongst different issues, issued the inaugural working licences for Safaricom and Kencell. John additionally led debt and derivatives transactions for Safaricom totaling KES 30 billion, together with Safaricom’s inaugural KES 4 billion bond problem in 2001.
Along with being an funding banking deal maker, John performed key roles in creating Kenya’s capital markets as we all know them as we speak, together with his main function within the improvement of capital markets laws
John has additionally been Board Director in each personal corporations and state-owned enterprises. For the latter, he’s finest often called the inaugural Board Chair at Konza Technopolis Growth Authority, as a particularly energetic and efficient Board Chair at Kenya Pipeline Firm Restricted, and presently serves as Board Chair on the Industrial & Industrial Growth Company (ICDC), which is main the trouble to implement the Kenya Transport & Logistics Community, encompassing Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Pipeline Firm Restricted and Kenya Railways Company. He additionally serves on the Kenya Airways PLC Board
In March 2021 John was appointed Chair of a Presidential Taskforce on Energy Buy Agreements (PPAs) to reviewing Energy Buy Agreements (PPAs) between the Kenya Energy & Lighting Firm PLC and Impartial Energy Producers (IPPs), following a sustained public outcry that PPAs have been skewed in opposition to KPLC, resulting in unsustainably excessive shopper energy tariffs. The Taskforce reported again to President Uhuru Kenyatta in September 2021 with a raft of extensive ranging and radical suggestions. Thereafter the President appointed John Chair of the Steering Committee charged with overseeing implementation of those suggestions. This Committee submitted its report on the finish of June 2022. At present John is presently chairing the federal government staff negotiating with IPPs on tariffs.
John can be within the forefront of efforts to place Africa as a worldwide chief within the transition from fossil fuels to scrub vitality, as a part of the worldwide battle in opposition to the destructive impression of local weather change.
In all that he has undertaken, John’s overriding skilled aim has been to see Africa free of financial hopelessness. He believes strong and environment friendly monetary companies shall be a key issue, therefore his pivotal function in creating monetary markets.
“We are able to higher ourselves and our circumstances, so let’s cease whining about previous injustices, as an alternative let’s deal with checking out our issues and stop counting on foreigners, or on international help, to do the job for us” – John Ngumi
