About Us

Loita derives its name from the Loita Naimina Enkio Forest in Kenya, a beautiful indigenous forest preserved by the local Maasai community. Importantly, many of Kenya’s early independence struggles were launched from the forest and thus it still stands for us today a symbol of a rich, emerging Africa.

Founded in 1992 by a group of international bankers originally in Kenya, the Loita Group has since grown into a unique pan-African group, headquartered out of Mauritius, with a dedicated team of professionals from around the world. In 2005 and 2006, Loita was voted by Africa Investor magazine as the best Financial Consultancy to Africa. The group originates and completes transactions across Africa from a network of company and affiliated locations and relies on this local network to share and apply best practices, which take into account the reality and demands of our markets.

The group has four distinct pillars of business operations, all of which centre around services to banking institutions, financial services or microfinance institutions: Corporate Finance advisory work and Bank Management; Electronic Funds Transfer Switches for countries banking sectors; Electronic Funds Services for banking institutions continent-wide and Financial Services Management.

Vision

 At Loita, we have created the optimum environment from which to originate and structure innovative solutions to those requirements.

Our competitive advantage derives from the ability to bridge the gap between the objectives of regional and international financial institutions and Africa's investment banking requirements.

Principles

  • Provide innovative products and services which accurately reflect the emerging markets in which it operates
  • Develop an outstanding cadre of African professionals who have an appreciable stake in the success of the company
  • Originate cutting-edge practices and technologies which contribute the rapid growth of African economies
  • Support private sector initiatives in Africa through greater access to credit and capital as Mauritius

 

Our Locations

 

 

Our Founders

 Justin Chinyanta, a former Vice President at Citibank and HSBC Bank’s Africa offices cofounded the Loita Group in 1994 (www.loita.com), a pioneering pan-African investment banking and financial ICT group (headquartered in Mauritius), which through wholly owned subsidiary Loita Capital Partners International has advised on, structured and arranged in excess of USD 6 billion in various funding transactions, in addition to its activities in financial technology (through another wholly owned subsidiary Fintech International) as well as digital payments and switching space (Loita Transaction Services).

A past non-executive board member of numerous public and private sector boards such as Ecobank Malawi (Chair Risk and Credit Committee) and Johannesburg Securities Exchange listed infrastructure firm Group 5 (Member Risk Committee and Remuneration Committee), Justin presently chairs FinCredit Kenya and Uganda, and also serves as executive Vice President (Southern Africa) for the Africa Business Roundtable. He is one of the pioneer members of General Colin Powell and Ms Madeleine Albright’s Initiative for Global Development’s Frontier 100 CEOs and in April 2013, became a member of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Commonwealth Study Conference Leaders Forum. In December 2017 he was appointed by the Government of Zambia as Non-executive Chair of the National Housing Authority, and has previously served as honorary member of Zambian President Mwanawasa’s Investment and Business Advisory Council. 

Justin is a Fellow of Harvard University (Weatherhead Center for International Affairs) and a graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (International Business Transactions and Financial Law). He is an Advocate of the Zambian High Court with an LLB from the University of Zambia.

Mr Yousef S. Bazian co-founded Loita Holding Corporation in 1992, the holding company which owns Loita Capital Partners International, Fintech International and Loita Transaction Services. He currently serves as the Chairman of Loita Transaction Services, the Information Technology clusters of the Loita Group.

Mr Bazian, a trained banker, was educated at Yarmouk University with a degree in Marketing and Finance. He commenced his career in Citibank, Jordan and transferred to the UK and to Africa to serve as a Resident Vice President in the East African, Indian Ocean and Angolan region until 1992. Mr Bazian then moved to HSBC Equator as Vice President with regional responsibilities for East Africa and Angola until 1994. Following a stint as Regional Manager at Cairo Amman Bank covering the Palestinian Territories based out of Ramallah, Yousef moved to set up and run the Corporate Finance division at Arthur Andersen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia until 1999.

In 2008, Yousef joined Ernst and Young in the Middle East and was responsible for Transaction Advisory Services for Sovereign Wealth Funds and Private Equity moving in 2009 to set up and lead the PwC Corporate Finance Division in the Middle East and established the industry grouping of SWF and PE. He joined PwC’s ME board of Directors in 2011 where he served until his retirement from the Firm.

Thereafter, Mr Bazian acted as Chief executive Operations of the Aperture Group Management Company in Qatar. Mr. Bazian serves on the board of directors of Palestine Investment Bank in Ramallah and is a trustee on the board of trustees of The Galilee Foundation, a UK registered foundation focused on education.

W. G. Barry Ryan, an Australian citizen, is the Managing Director of Fintech International Ltd. Also a former Citibank manager, Mr. Ryan has over nineteen years of experience in planning, developing and implementing banking automation and telecommunications solutions in Africa. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from Sydney University and a Postgraduate degree in Data Processing from the University of Technology in Sydney. As the Technology Head for Citibank until 1993, he was responsible for managing the technology requirements for the bank's twenty-two branches in eleven countries across Africa.

Dr. Delwin Roy, an American citizen, is the Secretary/Treasurer of Loita Holdings Corporation (Bahamas). Dr. Roy is the chief officer for corporate governance and compliance, corporate social responsibility, and legal affairs. He also contributes to the Group's strategic planning and management. Dr. Roy holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley (BS and MBA) and Ph.D. from the Krannert School of Industrial Management, Purdue University. He has served as a Fellow, Center for International Affairs, Harvard University; Senior Fellow, Wharton Applied Research Center; Research Associate, Middle East Research Institute, Un iv. of Pennsylvania; and, Visiting Professor, School of Law, Stanford University. Dr. Roy's international professional career includes positions with Cornell University, School of Business and Public Administration; U.S. Agency for International Development; The Ford Foundation; Citibank, N. A., and The Hitachi Foundation (formed by Hitachi, Ltd.) where he served 13 years as Founding President and CEO. His publications include extensive works on Middle Eastern economic policy, education and economic development, international business administration, global corporate responsibility, and public enterprise management. Dr. Roy also serves as Chairman and President, The Eric Edward Roy Fund for Education in Africa (Eric Roy was a Founder of the Loita Group), and is a board member of the Orphan Support Africa, a not-for-profit group committed to building community capacity in support of HIV/AIDS orphans in Africa. He is also a board member of the Santa Cruz County Volunteer Center.

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