Kenny Fihla

Parastatals are crucial to SA’S development and will continue to receive backing as long as they are solid and well run, says Fihla

Kenny Fihla, Standard Bank’s new corporate & investment banking CE, was the sixth in a family of eight children. He grew up in Soweto, Vrede (in the Free State) and Sterkspruit (in the Eastern Cape).

With a master’s degree in financial economics and an MBA, he has risen above political, social and economic injustice to now lead a business with a R900bn balance sheet and annual earnings exceeding R10bn.

Fihla is a former leader of the Congress of SA Students. Following the arrest of congress president, Ephraim Mogale, in the 1980s, Fihla left the country as a “precautionary” move, but returned in 1994.

He became involved in local government, working for the City of Johannesburg on strategy and economic development. He was later appointed chairman of the city’s “committee of 10”, which was established to implement a five-year turnaround plan.

This, he says, was one of the most fulfilling experiences of his life.

A former regional chairman of the ANC in Johannesburg, he says he is “devastated” about where the party is today. “There is a lack of focus on key ANC principles and policies.”

Fihla doesn’t plan an overhaul of the strategy of the bank’s division, but says his style will be different from that of his predecessor, David Munro. Among his priorities will be devising ways to service smaller black businesses with complex financing needs by, for example, getting closer to the management and ownership of the businesses.

Fihla, who has a wide smile and energetic laugh, is honest about the bank’s shortcomings when it comes to transformation.

It could have been further along had the bank taken certain steps a decade ago, for instance by fasttracking talented black individuals to accelerate their progression to management, he says. “Whether we can absorb them or not is a nonissue. This will be good for the country.”

Better corporate governance at state-owned companies would also be good for SA, he says. He believes they play a critical role in the country’s development and will continue to receive backing as long as they are solid. “But they must be well run.”

In the absence of deep savings pools, SA and the rest of Africa remain dependent on capital inflows to fund development. This is why, says Fihla, it was so disappointing that there were delays in the signing into law of the Financial Intelligence Centre Amendment Act.

“This undermined the country’s credibility,” he says.