Kenyan banker James Mwangi eyes bank acquisitions along the Lobito Corridor for Equity Group

James Mwangi has a clear picture of where Equity Group is going next, and it is not where most people expected. The Kenyan bank's chief executive told Reuters this week that Equity is targeting acquisitions in Angola, Zambia and Mozambique, three countries that have barely featured in discussions of the bank's expansion since it entered the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2015 and 2020.

The lender, which currently operates in seven markets, plans to expand to as many as 15 countries by 2030, starting with Zambia, Mozambique and Angola, as it seeks a slice of the trade routes moving rare earth and critical metals across the continent.

The logic is corridor logic, not geography. "There is an opportunity we can get in Angola, Zambia and Mozambique. So it's not just about countries, it's about following our customers and following trade routes," Mwangi told Reuters. "You can't do Mozambique without Zambia," he added, highlighting the interconnected nature of Southern African trade.

The corridor he is following is the Lobito Transport Corridor, the US-backed rail route connecting the Atlantic port of Lobito in Angola to the copper and cobalt mines of the DRC and Zambia. The Africa Finance Corporation is in advanced talks with at least ten lenders, including Citi, Standard Bank, Absa and Ecobank, to raise $3 to $5 billion for the corridor's construction phase, targeting financial close in Q4 2027 and completion by 2030. When complete, the corridor is projected to increase transport capacity tenfold and cut mineral export costs by 30 percent. A bank with operations along the entire route, from the DRC through Zambia to Angola's Atlantic coast, captures the financial flows that move with the minerals.

Angola is the most advanced target. Equity is moving to acquire a majority stake in an undisclosed Angolan bank in 2026, having reprioritised after regulatory friction in Ethiopia, where foreign ownership in any single bank is capped at 40 percent, slowed its long-planned entry there. Mozambique, which serves as the gateway for minerals flowing toward Asian markets, is next. Mwangi credited President William Ruto for facilitating an introduction to Mozambique's President Daniel Chapo and said he was scheduled to meet Chapo this week.

Mwangi emphasised that the expansion is driven by customer demand and trade flows rather than geography alone, with the group aiming to enter the targeted markets at the earliest opportunity. These countries are seen as attractive due to their reserves of copper, cobalt, oil and natural gas, as well as the expected gains from the US-backed Lobito Corridor. Equity is prioritising acquisitions over greenfield investments, citing structural, cultural and regulatory complexities in new markets.

The ambition sits on top of a record financial year. Equity Group posted full-year 2025 profits of KSh75.5 billion, with 51 percent of earnings now generated outside Kenya. The DRC, where Equity commands a 24 percent market share after two acquisitions, provides the operating template for what the bank wants to replicate in Southern Africa: entry through acquisition, followed by patient growth using mobile-first banking infrastructure designed for markets with low formal banking penetration.

Mwangi also told Reuters that Equity was building resilience against geopolitical shocks, including through diversification into insurance and greater deployment of artificial intelligence to cut costs. Technology helped compress costs sharply in 2025, boosting profit across the group. The bank's financial technology arm, FinServe, is central to that strategy and will not be spun off. "We are not spinning it off because it's the platform on which the business is built," he said.

Ethiopia remains on the agenda. Equity has maintained a representative office in Addis Ababa for seven years and is watching plans to open the banking sector to foreign lenders. "Our presence in that country using a rep office signifies our readiness to enter the market," Mwangi said. But Angola comes first.