After Recession, Top Brokers Find Golden Chance

Business Daily (Nairobi)

John Gachiri

27 April 2011

The 2008 global financial crisis triggered a “reverse migration” of financial sector professionals as some sought new jobs in other industries after retrenchment or in escape of ensuing economic downturn in developed economies.

Kenyan professionals in diaspora were in the top and medium rungs of the corporate ladder in the world’s financial centres, London and New York.

But when the big banks began massive layoffs to survive the crisis, home looked best for the budding professionals who had emigrated in search of better pay and higher living standards.

Barclays, Citi, Bank of America and insurer AIG announced massive cuts of their workforce at the height of the crisis.

Three years down the line, most Kenyan professionals who worked in the top notch of corporate finance say they have few regrets.

Despite the Kenyan market being under-developed compared to its South African and Egyptian peers, they still see it as a golden opportunity to work at home.

NIC Capital general manager Wilson Irungu says while working in a fast-paced and challenging environment at Citigroup Global Markets London and New York was an invaluable career opportunity, he does not regret taking a job in Kenya’s capital markets.

“Kenya has offered me an opportunity to be part of an economic revolution that could not have been offered any other place,” says Mr Irungu.

Besides, in Kenya he is seated in the cockpit of a sector that is on the run-way, which is more exciting and rewarding than to being a cog in the wheel of a financial behemoth.

“As my professor once asked me, do you want to be a head of a dog or a tail of a lion?’ says the general manager at NIC Capital. “By coming to Kenya I aspired to be the head of a dog and it’s been more rewarding than I could have ever conjectured,” he says.

“The quality of life here is much better due to the fact that help is readily available and affordable to enable one to balance family life and work,” says Irene Ndibo-Muigai.

Ms Ndibo-Muigai was previously at Goldman Sachs (US) where she held the position of Global Securities Services, vice president (Securities Lending- Trading).

She was head of Institutional Sales, East Africa at African Alliance Securities and also held the position of director, Equity Products at Renaissance Capital (Eastern Africa).

While movies such as Boiler Room and the television series, the Bull, lionise the traders and analysts and deal makers in the financial sector, there is a lot that goes into the industry that is not highlighted on television.

Working at this level is not for the faint-hearted as the investment banks make sure that they get their pound of flesh and in full.

“Professionally, the market abroad and in particular the cutthroat investment banking space pushes one to their limits with the average 80-120 hours working weeks,” says Mr Irungu.

This means that off on a Sunday afternoon is a luxury. Still there are areas where such an environment, despite being tough, trumps the Kenyan environment.

Ms Ndibo-Irungu says that Kenyan firms have to be flexible in compensation since they are getting quality and experienced personnel.

Deals abroad range from swaps, derivatives and other complicated financial products which make rights issues, initial public offerings and commercial papers in the local market looks like child’s play.

CFC Stanbic director in charge of infrastructure, John Ngumi, who has also worked abroad says as the market develops and with it more Kenyans are expected to return.

Part of a process

“This is part of a process and there are people who will still keep coming here just like Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore,” says Mr Ngumi.

The Kenyans returning will have to compete with Kenyans who have began their career locally, but Ms Ndibo-Muigai say that the difference is negligible.

Finance is a popular course among college students and those who have had experience in the industry say that patience and sacrifice are virtues which one must embrace fully.

“Never say no to an opportunity in the industry no matter how junior the position is or how low the pay is. Each experience will build on itself and you will find yourself climbing up the corporate ladder in no time,” says Ms Ndibo-Muigai.

Mr Irungu says that to stay head of the park there is no short-cut; “one has to read with a ferocious appetite.”

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