Awards for Excellence 2020
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“This pandemic will change a lot of things in terms of how people approach crises in the future,” Martin Mugambi, Citi’s chief executive for Kenya and east Africa, tells Euromoney.
The US bank’s approach has been both responsive – working with central banks across the continent to offer loan extensions and restructurings to its clients – and proactive – looking for longer-term solutions to support Africa’s economic recovery.
The bank has a history of building long-term relationships with finance ministers, central banks, corporate clients, multilateral agencies and NGOs, according to Nicole Curtin, Citi’s public affairs head for west and central Africa.
“These partnerships combined with Citi’s global network have proved invaluable in this time of crisis,” she says. “We were able to quickly remodel operations to ensure the safety of our staff and provide adapted financial solutions to our public- and private-sector clients.”
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Martin Mugambi |
The Citi Foundation committed $2.3 million in charitable contributions to governments and NGOs for Covid-19 emergency health support across 16 African countries, while continuing to provide critical payment services for international agencies operating in conflict zones, including payroll.
In Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it helped a large development agency to cover the payroll of 11,000 of its staff members by increasing its value limits after the suspension of commercial flights impacted the ability of the agency to import and export cash.
In Kenya, Citi helped a public-sector client develop a mobile collections solution to eliminate cash after the central bank advised that companies should use electronic payments instead of bank notes to minimize the spread of Covid-19.
Citi has also been integral in helping to mobilize private-sector financing for the continent. It recently acted as joint bookrunner on the AfDB’s $3 billion ‘Fight Covid-19’ social bond.
