James Mwangi-led Equity Group fires 200 Kenyan staff over $11.6 million scandal

Key Points

• Equity Group terminated 200 Kenyan employees following a probe that uncovered payroll and mobile money fraud involving internal staff.
• The internal audit revealed over 40 unauthorized payments, with stolen credentials used to divert funds, prompting disciplinary action and a compliance overhaul.
• Despite the scandal, Equity’s retained earnings rose to $1.81 billion, with the group expanding across East Africa and ranking among Africa’s top-performing firms.

Equity Group, East Africa’s largest financial services provider, led by Kenyan banker James Mwangi, has terminated the contracts of roughly 200 employees in Kenya following a sweeping internal investigation that uncovered a payroll and M-Pesa fraud scandal amounting to Ksh1.5 billion ($11.6 million).

The bank, East Africa’s largest by assets, revealed that the affected employees spanned senior managers and junior staff across its branch network and head office. The probe, which began in December 2024, flagged a complex web of irregular deposits, unauthorized payments, and breached IT credentials that led to dozens of high-value transactions to external bank accounts.

Equity Bank dismisses staff over ethics breach

In a company-wide audit, staff were required to account for unexplained cash inflows into their bank or mobile money accounts dating back two years. Disciplinary hearings were conducted face-to-face, and those unable to provide adequate justification were summarily dismissed for gross misconduct, conflict of interest, and ethical breaches.

At the heart of the scam were stolen credentials from a senior staffer in the Group Processing Centre, which investigators say were used to authorize over 40 fraudulent payments. Some of the flagged transactions involved transfers linked to clients, internal employees, and related entities — a direct violation of Equity’s ethics policy. “We have pushed the brand,” said CEO James Mwangi during a staff address. “It is now Africa’s top-rated financial brand and second globally. It will never survive if its people contradict it.”

The dismissed employees were compensated in line with policy — receiving pay for days worked, unused leave, and notice period settlements. The bank has since launched efforts to bolster its internal controls, including hiring security professionals, fraud risk analysts, and onboarding anti-fraud experts across its subsidiaries in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and the DRC.

Regional expansion and profit surge

Under Mwangi’s leadership, Equity has expanded aggressively across Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Rwanda, and the DRC, cementing its status as a pan-African banking force. As the bank’s largest individual shareholder with a 3.39 percent stake—equal to 127.8 million shares—Mwangi has steered its transformation with strategic clarity.

Despite the internal scandal, the group’s retained earnings rose from Ksh202.9 billion ($1.58 billion) to Ksh232.8 billion ($1.81 billion), reinforcing its financial strength. In African Business’s 2025 corporate rankings, Equity was named East Africa’s third-best performing company and ranked No. 88 continentwide, underscoring its resilience amid ongoing reforms.