Africa’s presidential banking guru

In 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, president Paul Kagame travelled to the United States to make a foreign policy address at the University of Denver in Colorado.

After the speech, he was introduced to university president Marc Holtzman – a connection that in five years’ time would change the fortunes of Rwanda’s largest financial institution, the Bank of Kigali (BK).

Holtzman moved to London in 2008 as the vice chairman of Barclays, where the banking executive and the Rwandan president met again – this time in even more chanceful circumstances.

Kagame was flicking through the Financial Times when he saw a small section that mentioned Holtzman and decided to give his friend a call.

“Kagame said: ‘Would you come to Rwanda, I would like your advice’,” Holtzman says.

“And I did – it changed my life.”

On his first visit to the Rwandan capital of Kigali, Kagame instructed Holtzman to spend a day at the Bank of Kigali and report back with observations.

“I was later to learn this was typical of his approach. He reaches out. He flew to Bentonville Arkansas to meet Rob Walton, chairman of Walmart 15 years ago. He did the same with Howard Shultz from Starbucks and now Starbucks is one of the largest buyers of Rwanda coffee beans.”

Holtzman has been the chairman of the Bank of Kigali since 2015, combining digitisation and outreach into Rwanda’s large agricultural sector to boost market share from 25% to 33%.

Together with CEO Diane Karusisi, he has overseen the assembly of a strong team of highly qualified Rwandan bankers, mostly from the diaspora.

The Bank of Kigali is currently rolling out a product that will be “better than M-Pesa”, Kenya’s mobile money platform created by the teleco Safaricom, as the service will have a “more integrated approach” coming from a bank.

Holtzman is well known for innovation among the banking community, saying “there will be a lot of winners and losers” as banks around the world strive to digitise their business models.  

He also has a reputation from his time as CEO of Kazakhstan’s largest private bank for weeding out corruption and inefficiency.

On Kagame’s recommendation, Holtzman was introduced to Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa who is on an investment promotion drive following decades of damage to the business environment by former president Robert Mugabe.

In September last year, he was appointed chairman of the board to the conglomerate CBZ Holdings which runs subsidiaries in banking, insurance, property, retail finance and wealth management.

Holtzman had the specific mandate of “cleaning house” and removing financial penalties imposed by Washington after CBZ Holdings had processed payments for a local lender under US sanctions before his tenure. 

“The government is one of the largest shareholders and the president was very clear that he would give me carte blanche to do what needed to be done,” he says.

After replacing 13 of the top 20 people in the conglomerate, it was announced last month that CBZ Holdings will no longer face penalties or sanctions, sending a “huge signal to western and American businesses to look at the country.”

Holtzman’s work as a consultant for two presidents has given him a reputation in government circles across Africa.

He has since been asked by Ghana’s president to work as the senior independent director for a company in the extractive sector which is heading towards an IPO later this year.

“I personally draw more reward and satisfaction from the work I do in Rwanda and Zimbabwe than from anything I have done in my career,” he says. 

“It’s amazing to see financial inclusion grow and work to mentor local talent in these markets.