Eric Muriuki has taken up the post of Managing Executive for Pan-African Growth Strategy, Platforms and Digital Ventures at Absa Group, with his LinkedIn profile indicating a start this month and a base in the Johannesburg area; neither NCBA nor Absa have issued a formal announcement.
Muriuki spent 19 years at NCBA Group after joining Commercial Bank of Africa in July 2007, holding three senior positions – Programme Director, Enterprise Transformation from July 2007 to August 2012, General Manager, New Business Ventures from August 2012 to September 2019, and Group Director, Digital Business and CEO of LOOP DFS from October 2019 until his departure. Earlier in his career he worked as Business Systems Manager at Citi Kenya from 1999 to 2004 and as Business Change Manager at Co-operative Bank of Kenya from 2004 to mid-2007.
While at NCBA he contributed to the trust-account framework that enabled Safaricom’s M-Pesa electronic money in 2007, helped launch the M-Shwari mobile savings and micro-loan product in 2012, and was involved in the creation of the Fuliza overdraft service in 2019. NCBA’s digital business accounted for 32 per cent of group profit before tax in 2025, amounting to KSh9.0 billion, and Fuliza disbursed KSh1.25 trillion in 2025, up about 38 per cent from KSh906 billion in 2024.
Absa’s senior leadership was reshaped in 2026. Zaid Moola became Chief Executive of Corporate and Investment Banking on January 1, Sitoyo Lopokoiyit took over as Chief Executive of Personal and Private Banking in April, and Leon Barnard assumed the role of Chief Executive of Business Banking on June 1; Absa described Business Banking as a core engine of growth.
In Kenya, Abdi Mohamed left to lead I&M Bank and Yusuf Omari was appointed Managing Director and CEO of Absa Bank Kenya after serving as interim chief.
In September Absa launched Absa Next, a cloud-based digital platform that combines banking, savings, investments, payments and loans up to KSh1 million and is also open to non-customers. The bank positioned the platform as a technology model that could have relevance beyond Kenya.
Nedbank is acquiring a 66 per cent stake in NCBA for ZAR 13.9 billion (about KSh110 billion); the Central Bank of Kenya approved the deal on August 28, 2026 and the transaction remains pending completion.
