Yesterday, Equity Group celebrated its 35 years of existence in the Kenyan market after having started its journey back in 1984. At the celebration, the company unveiled a refreshed identity in line with the ongoing journey of transformation and regional expansion.
The new identity is aimed at creating sustainable growth path and service delivery in today’s rapidly changing financial services environment.
Going forward, Equity will present itself as a unified brand, with one basket of products and services under one roof; ranging from banking to insurance and investment. From an identity perspective, the new logo now features “Equity” without an entity name such as Group, Bank, Insurance, or Investment Bank.
Commenting on the move, Equity Group CEO and Managing Director Dr. James Mwangi noted that the refreshed positioning follows an extensive three-year process of sounding out its current and future customer segments. “The evolution of our brand is an important part of our strategy for continued market leadership as well as being integral to the promise we made to all of our stakeholders when we began our journey of transformation to modernize and do all we can to get closer to and better serve our customers,” he said.
“We are proud of the role Equity has continued to play in the growth and prosperity of Kenya and its people. Our brand has carried us through a disruptive and trailblazing 35 years’ period. During this period, we have evolved from a small building society to a leading bank in East and Central Africa. We have become a leading digital bank while our social impact investments hold promise to secure our young people as our future servant leaders.
The refreshed brand identity reflects the future we envision, one which communicates our global capability, strong heritage, innovative culture and agile business model that will carry and give the brand momentum to scale its strengths across Africa and the world,” Dr. James Mwangi added.
The refreshed look will first roll out in Kenya and eventually in all other markets where Equity Group has established its presence including Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and now, Zambia, Mozambique, and Ethiopia.
Equity maintains that the fresh identity matches the new realities, business model, customer segments and preferences and the evolving digital space; enabling it to focus on key areas that will see it remain relevant to the diverse and current consumer needs. This, it adds, will be achieved through spurring economic growth by empowering consumers; businesses and enterprises through innovative solutions, infusing digital capabilities at all touchpoints while nurturing existing and building new relationships.
In a bid to unlock new opportunities within the growing digital banking space, Equity bank will continually focus on operational efficiencies driven through innovations and re-engineering of its value chain.
Customers will be further enabled to interact with the bank on self-service channels of mobile and internet devices or on the 3rd party low variable cost infrastructure of over 46,000 agents and over 27,000 merchants.
“In developing this identity, we emphasize that our customers come first and that our primary focus is to ensure we are prepared and well-positioned to meet all the needs of our stakeholders in the most effective and seamless manner.
From tomorrow you will see the new signage in all our branches, as part of our refurbishment plan to modernize and update its distribution network which includes branches, ATMs online platforms and third-party outlets such as Agent and merchant locations.”
Dr. Mwangi