The Branch Manager position is a strategic leadership role that requires a balanced focus on business development, customer experience, operational integrity, and regulatory compliance. The role holder will be expected to translate the bank’s overall strategy into executable branch-level plans, ensuring that growth objectives are achieved while maintaining strong controls and adherence to policies. The Branch Manager will act as the primary representative of Absa Bank in the local market, engaging with key clients, business influencers, regulators, and community stakeholders.
This role demands a high level of accountability, decision-making capability, and people leadership. The Branch Manager will lead a multidisciplinary team responsible for retail and business banking operations, sales, service delivery, and support functions. The role involves significant interaction with internal stakeholders across corporate and investment banking, asset finance, bancassurance, and lead generation teams to maximize cross-selling and collaboration opportunities.
Position Details
Position Title: Branch Manager – Kitale
Advertised By: Absa Bank Kenya Plc
Number of Vacancies: 1
Workplace: Kitale Branch
Reporting Line: Regional Manager
Employment Type: Permanent
Advert Date: 16 January 2026
Advert Closing Date: 23 January 2026
Detailed Job Description and Responsibilities
The responsibilities of the Branch Manager are broad and multifaceted, reflecting the strategic importance of the role within the bank’s operating model. The duties span business growth, customer management, operational control, risk management, compliance, cost control, and people leadership. The role is structured to allocate approximately 60 percent of time to business growth and performance delivery, with the remainder focused on governance, controls, and leadership responsibilities.
Business Growth and Strategic Execution
The Branch Manager is responsible for implementing business strategic initiatives at the branch level and creating ownership of performance targets among the branch team. This includes agreeing on branch execution plans and strategies that are aligned with the bank’s overall strategy covering growth, transformation, and returns. The role holder must ensure that strategic priorities are clearly communicated, understood, and translated into actionable performance measures within the branch.
Continuous monitoring of branch business performance is a key requirement of the role. The Branch Manager must diligently track financial and non-financial performance indicators and make timely adjustments to execution strategies in response to emerging trends, risks, or opportunities. This includes proactive management of the branch balance sheet, income streams, and cost base to ensure sustainable profitability.
Portfolio risk management is a critical component of the role. The Branch Manager is expected to manage branch portfolio risks in line with the bank’s portfolio appetite, ensuring that lending and non-lending activities are conducted prudently and within approved risk parameters. In collaboration with the Regional Manager and product development teams, the role holder will contribute to product reviews and product development initiatives by providing constant feedback from the market.
The Branch Manager is required to collaborate closely with other business functions such as Corporate and Investment Banking, Asset Finance, Bancassurance, and lead generation teams. This collaboration is aimed at maximizing cross-selling opportunities and delivering integrated solutions that meet customer needs. Effective coordination across these functions is essential to achieving branch sales targets and enhancing overall customer value.
Market Intelligence and Customer Management
Conducting market intelligence is an ongoing responsibility of the Branch Manager. This includes identifying new market opportunities, monitoring customer trends, understanding existing geographical strengths, and staying informed about emerging government directives and changes in regulatory policy. The insights gained from market intelligence activities are expected to inform branch strategies, sales initiatives, and customer engagement approaches.
The Branch Manager is accountable for managing both borrowing and non-borrowing accounts within the branch to enhance customer loyalty and retention. This involves building strong relationships with customers, understanding their financial needs, and ensuring that appropriate products and services are offered in a timely and responsive manner.
A key expectation of the role is the establishment and maintenance of firm relationships with the top 200 clients and business influencers in the local area. The Branch Manager acts as a senior relationship manager for these clients, providing leadership engagement, resolving complex issues, and identifying opportunities to deepen relationships and grow the bank’s share of wallet.
Sales Leadership and Performance Management
The Branch Manager is responsible for leading the branch team to achieve customer retention objectives, transaction migration targets from counter services to alternate channels, balance sheet growth goals, and customer acquisition targets. This includes achieving branch sales targets across products and segments, as well as participating in and leading sales activations and campaigns.
Providing regular feedback to staff on performance is a core leadership responsibility. This feedback covers sales performance, customer experience metrics such as Net Promoter Score, and overall contribution to branch objectives. The Branch Manager must provide clear direction and guidance to branch staff on business objectives, translating and prioritizing these objectives into measurable performance outcomes at the branch and individual levels.
Harnessing existing staff potential and creating new competencies within the branch team is essential to achieving competitive advantage. The Branch Manager is expected to identify development needs, support learning initiatives, and create an environment that encourages high performance, accountability, and continuous improvement.
Operational Management and Branch Governance
Ensuring that proper controls, processes, and procedures are adhered to at all times is a fundamental responsibility of the Branch Manager. This includes strict adherence to Absa Bank policies, operational manuals, and regulatory requirements. The Branch Manager must ensure that the branch opens and closes in line with approved regulatory timelines and that operations staff are ready and equipped to serve customers effectively throughout the business day.
Operational responsibilities include overseeing the opening and closing of branch batches on the core banking system and ensuring that the branch maintains the required look and feel in line with Absa Bank standards. The Branch Manager is accountable for ensuring that all products and solutions are handled in compliance with bank policies and that customer interactions meet quality and service expectations.
Compliance with Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering processes is a critical aspect of the role. The Branch Manager must ensure that all new-to-bank business complies with KYC and AML requirements and that acceptable turnaround times and accuracy standards are consistently achieved. This includes ensuring that all relevant system reports are printed, reviewed, signed off, and filed in a timely manner in accordance with Absa Records Management policy.
Financial Crime Risk Management
The Branch Manager and the branch team are expected to remain alert to the risk of financial crime and to actively support the bank’s efforts to combat such risks. This involves adherence to key principles including positive identification of customers, thorough knowledge of customers, prompt reporting of suspicious activity, and obtaining correct supporting documentation for large cash transactions, over-the-counter transactions, and foreign exchange trades.
Safeguarding records and maintaining confidentiality are essential responsibilities, as is ensuring that suspicions are not disclosed to customers. The Branch Manager plays a leadership role in embedding a strong risk culture within the branch and ensuring that staff understand and comply with financial crime prevention requirements.
Cost Management and Resource Control
In conjunction with the Branch Operations Lead, the Branch Manager is responsible for strict cost management within the branch. This includes reviewing all service provider quotations before work proceeds and conducting regular reviews of key cost elements such as branch expenditure, equipment maintenance, overtime approvals, stationery consumption, telecommunications, utilities, travel, staff costs, and sundry losses.
Effective cost control is essential to maintaining branch profitability and ensuring that resources are used efficiently. The Branch Manager must balance cost management with the need to maintain service quality, operational resilience, and a safe working environment.
Audit, Security, and Risk Controls
The Branch Manager is accountable for ensuring compliance with operational, security, control, and process risk requirements to avoid losses and prevent fraud arising from operational lapses. Protecting both bank and customer assets is a core responsibility of the role.
The Branch Manager must ensure that the branch achieves a minimum satisfactory audit rating through continuous self-assessment and the prompt closure of all audit exceptions identified. This includes ensuring that all required approvals for transactions are obtained in line with delegated authorities and policy requirements.
Academic Qualifications, Professional Skills, and Expertise
The role requires a university degree in a relevant discipline. Postgraduate qualifications are considered an added advantage. The position also requires a minimum of five years’ experience in banking or financial services, with at least three years spent in branch management and a demonstrated track record of performance. Prior experience in supervisory or managerial roles within the banking industry is expected.
The Branch Manager must demonstrate strong leadership, managerial, and interpersonal skills to effectively lead teams, collaborate with stakeholders, and drive change within the branch. Effective communication skills, problem-solving ability, and the capacity to motivate and develop staff are essential.
A solid understanding of financial products and services offered by the bank is required, including knowledge of lending procedures, investment options, regulatory compliance, risk management, and customer relationship management. The role requires a proven ability to achieve sales targets and deliver results in a competitive environment.
Strong knowledge of banking regulations, compliance requirements, and risk management practices is necessary to ensure that branch operations remain within legal and ethical boundaries. The role also requires up-to-date knowledge of competitor activity and market dynamics in the local area, as well as detailed working knowledge of operational and credit risk policies and procedures for both retail and business banking segments.
Technical and Behavioral Competencies
The Branch Manager is expected to demonstrate strong technical competencies, including proficiency in computerized banking applications and spreadsheets. Conceptual and analytical skills are essential, with the ability to quickly grasp systems, processes, and detailed information.
Risk management capability is a key competency, including the ability to anticipate and mitigate risks through the implementation of appropriate policies and controls. A thorough understanding of the compliance and regulatory framework, including requirements set by the Central Bank of Kenya and other relevant bodies, is required.
The role also demands good basic credit skills, including knowledge of personal and business credit underwriting and portfolio management. Familiarity with audit standards, accounting principles, and relevant legislation is necessary to support compliance and governance responsibilities.
Behavioral competencies include a strong results orientation, the ability to plan and monitor branch performance using defined systems and processes, and the capacity to identify, nurture, and develop talent. The Branch Manager must be capable of mentoring staff, managing change, and fostering open communication, teamwork, and trust within the branch.
Well-developed communication and interpersonal skills are essential, including oral communication and report-writing capability. Negotiation and selling skills are required to influence customer behavior, grow customer value, and support product uptake in a manner that delivers mutually beneficial outcomes.
Human resource management skills, including team building, staff development, and performance management, are critical to the success of the role. The Branch Manager must demonstrate high personal ethics, integrity, and fairness, and must remain conscious of the bank’s reputation in all interactions.
Application Information
This vacancy is open to qualified and experienced candidates who meet the requirements outlined above. Applications for this position are not submitted via email.
