BREAKING NEWS: GCS KENYA & EAST AFRICA

We have received some exciting news from our African partners, to share with all GCS colleagues. Sam Omukoko, CEO of GCS Kenya has just been advised they have received the approval from the Central Bank of Kenya, to run a Credit Reference Bureau for Banks in Kenya. As Sam advises this is a great milestone given that the vetting process has taken over a year and is a very rigorous exercise. A license from the Central Bank of Kenya gives Sam and Metropol East Africa Ltd, the necessary credibility to expand to other parts of Africa without suffering the credibility challenge. And they are naturally very pleased with this development.

In addition, we have just been received advice from Sam, that he has been nominated to give a talk to the World Consumer Credit Reporting Conference to be held in Berlin in September 2010. His company Metropol, provides Credit Bureau services to Non Bank credit providers and had applied for a license to be issued by the Central Bank of Kenya to provide CRB services to Banks in Kenya. (Refer above).

This Provides Metropol with a platform to expand the same services to the other countries in the region and continent, and the conference at which Sam will present will effectively put Metropol on the Global Credit Bureau Map and he, and his entire team are understandably excited about it. Details can be seen at www.wccrc2010.com and Sam is going to be a busy traveler as he presents at the GLOBAL CREDIT, COLLECTIONS & RISK TRENDS conference in Vancouver Wednesday 15, 2010 where GCS delegates will be meeting.

Sam’s bio follows:

Samuel Omukoko

Group Managing Director & CEO
Metropol East Africa

A career banker, Sam is the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive of Metropol East Africa Limited. He has over 12 years experience in the Credit Rating and Reporting industry as well as 12 years as a practicing banker with Kenya’s leading Domestic Commercial Bank. Sam holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Nairobi and CPA Accounting certificate. Sam has been involved in many interventions in the financial services and capital markets in Kenya, and the East African Region some of which include: Credit Training; Development of credit curriculum for The Kenya Institute of Bankers (KIB) and was chief examiner in strategic Marketing and Lending Papers from 2000 to 2006 and Institute of Credit Management of Kenya (ICM-K) where he is a founder member and Chairman of the examination board from 2002 to 2004.

He is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers (ACIB), UK and a Fellow of the Kenya Institute of Bankers (KIB). Sam was the lead consultant in the SME credit scoring and Credit rating Project which was funded by IFC and Pro-Invest of the European Union for the East African market between 2004 and 2006. He has attended many courses in financial management locally and abroad. Sam oversees the Groups strategic direction and leads the product and enterprise developments across the Group’s varied business and product lines. Sam has also been the lead consultant in the implementation of the SME scoring tool in three banks in Kenya and Uganda.

He is currently the Treasurer for the East African Credit Bureau Association (EACBA) and was nominated to attend the World Conference on Consumer Credit Reporting and the Third Global Consumer Reporting Conference held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in October 2008.