The appointment of Sitoyo Lopokoiyit to lead Absa’s personal and private banking (PBB) division was geared towards building a Pan-African franchise with leading fintech capabilities, group CFO Deon Raju said.
Absa last month poached Lopokoiyit from M-Pesa, largely regarded as Africa’s “super app,” a development that was first reported by Business Day.
He is set to assume the leadership reins of PBB from next month.
Raju said Lopokoiyit’s appointment signalled that Absa is a Pan-African lender that can draw talent from anywhere on the continent.
“We recognise that the traditional banking model is changing given all the competition that is coming in and the growing expectations of the customer base who want more for less. We did not want to go and appoint a traditional retail banker. We went and looked for where there is success on the Pan-African continent in financial services,” Raju said.
“M-Pesa stood out. It is a globally recognised success. Traditional banking is transforming and we need to be at the forefront of that. We need the talent that understands and has a track record of having delivered.
“We are excited about the appointment of Sitoyo and the skills, intellect, entrepreneurship and innovation he is bringing to the company.”
We did not want to go and appoint a traditional retail banker. We went and looked for where there is success on the Pan-African continent in financial services.
— Deon Raju, Absa group CFO
M-Pesa, a joint venture between Safaricom and Vodacom, has grown to be one of Africa’s biggest fintech success stories, with more than 60-million clients, processing about $1bn a day in transactions.
Lopokoiyit joins a new breed of executives assembled by Kenny Fihla since he took over the helm of the group last year. One of the appointments he has made is that of Zaid Moola from Standard Bank to head its corporate and investment banking (CIB) unit — a cog in its strategy to geographically diversify its earnings from its largest market, South Africa.
The group’s results for the year to end-December show improvement from those of the previous year. Headline earnings grew 12% to R24.8bn, of which 69% came from South Africa and the rest from the broader Africa portfolio. The group’s return on equity improved from 14.8% to 15%.
The CIB business reported a return on equity of 21.1%, up from 20.7% in the previous year, contributing 48.3% of group headline earnings. The PBB business contributed 28% of the group’s earnings, while business banking, which was a drag on results, contributed 14.4% of earnings.
Pan-African growth
The Africa region’s portfolio had a strong showing, with earnings surging 51% to R2.5bn, despite mixed growth in markets in which the group is present.
“Economic growth was mixed across our other African markets in 2025. Ghana’s economy strengthened further with strong gold export revenues supporting the sharp rally in the cedi resulting in rapidly decelerating inflation and a large reduction in rates,” the group said.
“Zambia’s economy also showed a strong rebound from earlier drought and benefited from a surge in copper prices and output, while the diversified economies of East Africa continued to perform strongly,” it said.
“Conversely, the weak diamond market put pressure on Botswana’s economy while in Mozambique insecurity, fiscal concerns and foreign exchange availability continued to weigh on growth. On a GDP-weighted basis we project that the African regions’ economies grew 4.9%.”
The group’s total assets rose 8% to R2.2-trillion. The lender paid dividends of R13bn in the year under review.
“Growth across several of our businesses, particularly in Corporate and Investment Banking and our Africa Regions operations, highlights the strength of our diversified franchise and our ability to deliver under evolving market conditions,” Fihla said.
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