Struggling Spire Bank picks new finance chief

Struggling Mwalimu National Sacco lending subsidiary Spire Bank has named Fredrick Omondi Nyasaka as its new head of finance and administration.

Nyasaka joins the lender from Bank of Africa (BOA) where he headed the bank’s finance and internal audit departments.

He holds over 18 years of experience in the banking sector having held various roles within audit and finance in KCB, Equity, NCBA and Sidian bank.

The new finance chief will be tasked with firming up the bank’s operations which remain bedeviled by over-arching challenges including high loan defaults and a bloated funding structure.

“Nyasaka comes at a time when the bank is at its recovery phase. We believe his extensive background in banking and strong leadership experience will be of great importance as we embark on our five-year recovery phase to return the bank into profitability,” said Spire Bank Acting Managing Director Brian Kilonzo.

Last month, Spire Bank reported a tripling of its full year loss to Ksh.1.3 billion from a lower Ksh.472 million loss on the back of the contraction of key revenue streams.

Interest related expenses usurped total interest income dragging the bank to a first Ksh.109 million operating loss.

Meanwhile, the bank’s gross non-performing loans (NPLs) jumped to Ksh.2.7 billion surpassing the lender’s net loan book of Ksh.2.6 billion.

Mwalimu Sacco members, the bank’s majority shareholders, have been pushing to dispose the bank to a new investor to cut themselves off from the loss making entity which has since wiped out their initial capital investment.

Spire bank has eaten up Ksh.8.4 billion in shareholder funds from accumulated losses to December 2020 to include Ksh.5.8 billion in both assigned and paid up capital.

Moreover, the lender is in breach of most of its regulatory thresholds including those on core capital and liquidity.