Standard Bank Group appoints Anne Juuko Global Markets EA Head

Ms Anne Juuko has been appointed Global Markets Regional Head-East Africa covering seven countries effective April 1, 2024, after serving as Stanbic Bank Uganda CEO for four years.Ms Juuko is not new to Global Markets banking having joined the Standard Bank Group twelve years ago as Head of Global Markets for Stanbic Bank Uganda, before moving on to serve as Head of Corporate and Investment Banking Namibia until 2020 when she was appointed the chief executive officer of Stanbic Bank Uganda in 2020.Ms Juuko holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Makerere University and a master’s degree in strategic planning from the Herriot Watt Business School in Edinburgh, Scotland.In a statement issued on Mach 5, the Standard Bank Group Executive Head for Global Markets—Africa Regions Mr Kayode Solola stated that Ms Juuko's successor will be announced soon.“I congratulate Anne on this skyward deployment within the Group Africa Regions Global Markets leadership where she will oversee seven markets including Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, DR Congo, South Sudan, Malawi, and Zambia,” Mr Kayode said.The Board Chairman for Stanbic Bank Uganda, Mr Damoni Kitabire said: “We thank Anne and her colleagues in senior management for the collaboration and for leading their respective teams to considerable success and delivering for both our customers and shareholders.”Mr Patrick Mweheire, the Standard Bank Group Regional Chief Executive for East Africa congratulated and welcomed Ms Juuko to the East Africa region—an important growth vector in the Group’s business strategy.“I am confident that she will succeed in her new mandate—steering the respective country teams to deliver satisfactorily on the set revenue, profitability, and sustainability goals, given her expertise, market networks, and leadership experience,” he said.Management recordMs Juuko succeeded Mr Patrick Mweheire to become the first female Chief Executive of Uganda’s largest commercial lender in 2020 and is lauded for sustaining the bank’s profitability through the most challenging operating environments including two years of the global Covid-19 pandemic.Under her, the bank posted strong prosperity announcing a profit after tax of Shs365 billion in 2022, up from Shs242 billion in her first year 2020. Performance results for 2023 are set to be released later this month.During her tenure, the Bank also registered considerable success in enabling access to affordable credit for smallholder farmer groups with the launch in 2021 of the SACCO financing and capacity building programme which has since enrolled over 6000 groups with a combined membership of 1.8 million people and deposits of over Shs200 billion.Collectively, the bank has lent over Shs 80 billion at 10 percent annual interest to SACCO groups which has indirectly benefited nearly 10 million Ugandans, with support from partners such as Abi Trust, Operation Wealth Creation. It also played a critical part in enabling the implementation of the government of Uganda’s led Parish Development Model.In 2022, Stanbic Bank in partnership with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) launched Stanbic4Her, a special interest vehicle for capacity building and market development designed to support access to affordable credit by women-led local enterprises in Uganda.In her leadership watch, Stanbic has enrolled 19 000 women entrepreneurs of which 14 000 were new to the bank and had disbursed over Shs60 billion in deposits to women-led businesses at an annual interest rate of 15.5% as well as extending financial literacy training to over 54,000 women.Beyond banking, Ms Juuko will, among others, be remembered for championing maternal and neonatal health having launched the Corporate Society for Safe Motherhood alongside other private sector actors, in partnership with the Ministry of Health. Nearly 100, 000 women have benefited from the effort since 2021.During her time, the bank also invested in FlexiPay, a digital wallet that enables access to financial services without necessarily having a bank account. The digital channel has seen tremendous growth moving from 390, 000 wallets in 2022 to over 850, 000—nearly a million as of last year.[email protected]