Senior Credit Risk Manager at Equity Bank Kenya

THE KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Credit Risk Management
• Lead the development, review, and ongoing enhancement of credit risk reporting frameworks, dashboards, and management information (MI).
• Monitor the Bank’s credit risk profile across portfolios, products, sectors, and counterparties, highlighting emerging risks and trends.
• Support the formulation and review of credit risk frameworks, policies, methodologies, and risk appetite metrics.
• Provide expert analysis and insights on asset quality, portfolio performance, concentrations, stress testing outcomes, and early warning indicators.
• Ensure timely, accurate, and compliant credit risk reporting to senior management, Board Risk Committees, and regulators.
• Partner with Credit, Finance, Treasury, Business Units, and Compliance to support informed credit decision-making.
• Oversee credit risk data quality, assumptions, and integrity across systems and reports.
• Support regulatory submissions, internal and external audits, and supervisory reviews relating to credit risk.
• Mentor and develop team members, fostering a strong risk culture and technical capability within the Credit Risk function.
• Climate Risk
• Support the development and maintenance of the Group Climate Risk Framework aligned to international best practice and regulatory guidelines.
• Define governance, roles, metrics, data requirements, and processes for physical and transition risk assessment.
• Lead climate risk scenario analysis, sector heatmapping, asset level vulnerability assessments, and exposure mapping.
• Oversee financed emissions estimation climate concentration analysis and carbon intensive sector reviews.
• Integrate climate risk drivers into credit rating models, underwriting, stress tests, and ECL overlays.
• Country Risk Management
• Develop and maintain the Country Risk Management Framework covering:
• Transfer & Convertibility (T&C) risk
• Sovereign risk
• Contagion risk
• Cross border settlement risk
• Ensure alignment with Basel Committee guidelines, rating agencies, and internal methodologies.
• Monitor country limit utilization across subsidiaries and cross border exposures.
• Identify emerging risks arising from geopolitical shifts, capital controls, rating downgrades, or sovereign restructurings.
• Integrate country risk into ICAAP, stress testing, and capital planning decisions.

CORE ACCOUNTABILITIES AND DELIVERABLES 

• Financial
• Effective monitoring and reporting of credit risk exposures, impairments, non-performing loans (NPLs), and portfolio quality.
• Contribution to optimization of risk-adjusted returns through improved credit risk insights.
• Support accurate credit risk inputs into capital adequacy, provisioning (IFRS 9), and stress testing processes.
• People
• Provide leadership and guidance to credit risk analysts/managers.
• Build technical capability and succession within the Enterprise Risk team.
• Promote collaboration and high performance across cross-functional teams.
• Processes
• Design and maintain robust credit risk reporting and escalation processes.
• Ensure adherence to approved credit risk governance frameworks and internal controls.
• Drive continuous improvement and automation of reporting processes.
• Systems
• Oversight of credit risk systems, data warehouses, and reporting tools.
• Partner with IT and data teams on system enhancements, upgrades, and risk analytics solutions.
• Customers / Stakeholders
• Provide clear, insightful, and actionable risk information to senior management, committees, and regulators.
• Act as a trusted advisor to business and credit teams on credit risk matters.

Qualifications

KEY TECHNICAL SKILLS & LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES

• Strong expertise in credit risk management, portfolio analytics, and credit risk reporting.
• In-depth understanding of regulatory frameworks (Basel II/III), IFRS 9, and stress testing.
• Advanced analytical and data interpretation skills.
• Proficiency in credit risk systems, reporting tools, and data analytics platforms.
• Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving capability.
• High level of professional judgement and integrity.
• Ability to influence and challenge senior stakeholders constructively.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• People leadership, coaching, and talent development skills.

EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS  

• Minimum 9 years’ related areas within the financial services industry, 6 years in Credit Risk experience

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS AND CERTIFICATIONS 

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, Economics, Accounting, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related field.
• Master’s degree in finance, Risk Management, Economics, or Business Administration is an added advantage.
• Professional certifications such as FRM, PRM, CPA, ACCA, or CFA are strongly preferred.