Barclays Bank of Kenya has today announced major changes within its structure in a move aimed at consolidating the growth of the business banking unit.

The bank set up the Business Banking unit in 2014 and has in the last 2 years introduced enhancements to its proposition aimed at creating a higher resonance with the target market. Among the key solutions that the bank has rolled out since then include a Kshs.30 billion loan kitty for SMEs and a Kshs. 5 billion loan kitty for women owned SME businesses.

In addition, Barclays also introduced universal bankers in its entire branch network in essence empowering its front office staff to serve both retail and business customers. This was in addition to rolling out a single point of contact for SME businesses in a bid to enhance their experience with the bank.

In line with this, the bank has appointed Zahid Mustafa as the Director of Retail and Business Banking who was until his appointment, the Director of Retail Banking.

In his new role, Zahid will oversee the reappraisal of the Retail and Business Banking units, which are the bank’s growth engines. Among the things he is expected to deliver on is embedding the shared distribution strategy which is premised on using the branch network to serve SME customers, in addition to retail customers. He will also be expected to deliver cutting edge and relevant solutions for the two segments which will be buttressed by high quality service.

Zahid has a long and illustrious career spanning 20 years in Retail and Business Banking in Barclays where has been for 9 years and Citibank where he served for 11 years. He holds an MBA from Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan and a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from the University of Engineering & Technology, Lahore.

Barclays has also appointed Susan Situma as the Head of Enterprise Banking. Susan joins Barclays from Kenya Commercial Bank where she served as the Head of SME & Agribusiness.

Susan has over ten years’ experience in managing SMEs. In her new role, she will be responsible for driving the growth of the bank’s SME and will be tasked with building long-term relationships with SME clients founded on efficient and reliable support for their businesses.

Barclays is confident that these changes will play a big role in the development and execution of a strategy that will help it form a deeper connection with its key stakeholders and therefore propel it towards its ambition of becoming the ‘Go To’ bank.