How Dr Mary Okelo paved the way for women in banking

Dr Mary Okelo's journey to becoming the first woman banker started in July 1967 when she joined Barclays Bank management trainee programme.

She was the first woman to be admitted to the programme. She says it was not easy as all bankers were men. “I was turned down four times because I was a woman,” she says.

“It was a time when women were not considered for management or leadership positions. I was persistent and eventually they agreed to take me for the training in London.”

Under the two-year diploma training, they did professional studies in banking at the British Institute of Bankers. “I stayed in London from 1967 to 1969. On my return, I was appointed manager’s assistant at one of the branches, then sub-manager and finally a full manager at Westlands branch.”

By 1973, she had been promoted to manager at the Nakuru East branch but never took up the position – she wanted to remain with her family in Nairobi. “In 1977, I was appointed manager of Westlands branch, which was a rundown and loss-making. I turned it from a loss-making to profit-making branch and improved staff morale," she says.

Male hegemony

When she joined the bank, “women were cashiers, clerks, tea girls and secretaries," she says.

“Bank clients and staff did not know how to react to a woman manager. Male clients were not used to discussing money issues with a woman. There were still many white people from the colonial era who felt it was beneath them to discuss their finances with a black person, especially a woman.

“Male staff were not used to taking instructions from a woman, it took a lot of tact and wisdom to be a manager of men who were very chauvinistic and traditional.”

The structures were so male-dominated that only the men carried the bank keys. “Men had bank keys held on their trousers; for me, for the first time as a woman, I could not carry the keys in the traditional bank way," she says.

“So, permission had to be sought from London for me to carry bank keys in my handbag on condition that I carried it in my handbag.”

The lonesome environment motivated her to start a mentorship programme for women in the bank to aspire to be managers.

“It was not easy. I was accused of starting my union of women in the bank and I discovered that not every woman wanted to be a manager. Most of them were comfortable in their positions and did not want me to move them from their comfort zone.

“We were still under the colonial laws, especially the Victorian and Napoleonic laws, which treated women as minors. Women could not open bank accounts; the only few accounts were for the few women in government service whose accounts were opened for the purpose of paying salaries.”

Further, the women could not borrow money without a guarantee of a man, she says. “Women were not allowed to open bank account, so I sought permission to open accounts for purposes of paying salaries and sometimes I had to use neutral names that could not reveal gender of the account holder," she says.

“Occasionally, I lent women money, even though they had no security and guarantee from male guarantors. One of the most difficult occasion is when I lent money to a woman who had no male guarantor, I was called and warned that I had broken the bank rule.”

She “found this not only humiliating but also unfair and unjust because I knew she would repay the loan, which she did.”

Worse still, women were unfamiliar with bank language and practices, she says. She would sensitise them to banking services and products.

“I used to go to the markets to acquaint women with banking language, services and products, especially at Dagoretti Corner, Kawangware and City Market. I also taught them how to keep records of their daily sales and to separate business money from savings."

Women finance

In 1981, Dr Okelo founded the first-ever financial institution specifically addressing women's financial needs in the country: Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT).

She says KWFT was the outcome of the 1975 United Nations meeting in Mexico, where the status of women was discussed. The forum found that women had no access to capital, financial products and were generally under-represented in decision-making, she says.

“So, initiatives came up to address this and Women World Bank, established in 1979, took the mandate of starting programmes and initiatives in different countries to address women’s lack of access to credit, services and financial products."

She attended the first meeting in Amsterdam in 1979, which was the beginning of Women World Bank (WWB) affiliate globally. Through WWB, women formed organisations in their countries to address lack of access to financial institutions. Dr Okelo took the lead in Kenya.

With the support of then Barclays Bank managing director T.D Miles, who also financed her attendance at WWB meetings, she started KWFT. She says Mr Miles allowed her to use her office at Harambee Avenue Branch to start KWFT.

“I was able to bring together women lawyers, bankers and other women leaders to establish KWFT. As bank manager, I had seen how women had no access to financial products, so this was a way of addressing the gap.”

She got 100 women who raised capital—Sh2,000 each—to start the institution. But the start was not all rosy. “KWFT was a new concept and it required people to understand it. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, there was a lot of donor money, especially for women programmes, so when we started KWFT, especially with loans, the recipients thought it was donation and that led to a high rate of default.”

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It took forceful training and explaining that loans had to be paid, she says. “Organising the women was not easy and it required a lot of sensitisation and sometimes we experienced sabotage because some members were telling borrowers that this was donor money and so they did not have to pay.”

KWFT experienced so many problems that it nearly collapsed. It revived when Jennifer Riria was recruited to take over, she says.

“The lessons were that you have to invest in training and empowering people, to do the work. Funding KWFT training was not always easy; training women in financial literacy was expensive and difficult,” she says.

“The people who started KWFT, like Christine Hayanga, the late Veronica Nyamodi, the late Grace Githu and me, were all volunteers. Running an organisation with volunteers was not easy.”

Some of the challenges she sought to address through KWFT persist. “Banks still require land and property as security, but when you look at property ownership in the country, men own most of the land," she observes.

“So, women are disadvantaged when it comes to offering security for loans, especially huge loans.”

However, financial literacy among women has improved. “Women now own and control some assets. The number of women managers and directors in banks that helps in pushing for women special needs has also improved.”

Makini Schools

In 1978, she started Makini Schools. “The population of Kenya was growing at a very fast rate, five per cent per annum, one of the highest in the world," she says of the motivation for the move.

“The government could not build enough schools for the growing population. Classes in public schools were 70 pupils per teacher.”

She says the standards were falling and there was a need to start a school that could offer quality education.

“There was a growing middle class that wanted quality education for their children, yet few offered what they were looking for. There were no school for gifted and talented children, and we wanted a school for these children.”

She says Makini Schools were the first to introduce computer studies, financial inclusion and environmental studies to prepare the children to solve problems with integrity and diligence. “Fanya kwa Makini was our motto,” she asserts.

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