Co-operative Bank of Kenya Transforms Core Banking with Cedar Africa and Change Management

Co-operative Bank of Kenya, the third largest bank in the nation, embarked on one of the most significant transformations any financial institution can undertake: replacing its core banking system. This foundational change touched every aspect of the organization, from technical infrastructure to customer service delivery. 

Recognizing that technology implementation alone would not guarantee success, the bank partnered with Cedar Africa Group to build organizational change management capabilities and guide the people side of this critical transformation. 

The Challenge

Co-operative Bank of Kenya faced formidable obstacles in implementing its new core banking system. The transformation required more than technical expertise; it demanded a fundamental shift in how employees across the organization performed their daily work.

The first major challenge centered on translating knowledge into ability. While training programs could impart information about the new system, the bank needed to ensure that employees could demonstrate competency and perform their roles effectively in the new environment. 

Equally challenging was the risk of regression. After years of established routines and familiar processes, employees faced the natural human tendency to revert to old ways of working. The bank needed to ensure that staff not only learned new skills but also unlearned ingrained habits, adopting and practicing the new methodologies consistently. 

The challenge was compounded by the scale and complexity of the change, which affected products, processes, and people across every function of the bank. Without addressing these human factors, even the most sophisticated technology implementation would fail to deliver its promised efficiencies and enhanced customer service capabilities.

The Solution

Cedar Africa Group equipped Co-operative Bank of Kenya’s project implementation team and change leadership team with skills, tools and framework to successfully drive a structured, people-centered approach to transformation.

Key Interventions:

• Equip senior leaders to fulfill their essential roles and lead the change
• Empower middle-level managers with the competency to manage the change and drive adoption in their teams 
• Train the learning and development team to sustain the changes in the future
• Provide project implementation teams with skills, tools, and frameworks that bring structure to the implementation process
• Establish a dedicated Organizational Change Management (OCM) workstream operating alongside technical implementation teams
• Develop a comprehensive change management plan, including communications, training and assessments 
• Execute change impact and change readiness assessments to identify and address barriers to adoption
• Activate strategic sponsorship through hands-on coaching for executives

Develop OCM Workstream

The bank implemented a dedicated OCM workstream that operated alongside technical implementation teams, ensuring that the people side of change received equal attention and resources. This workstream drew upon best practice methodologies from Cedar Africa Group’s training, creating a systematic approach to managing the transformation.

Central to the solution was building organizational change competency from the top down. The entire executive leadership team completed Cedar Africa Group’s change management certification. This investment created a common language and framework for change across the organization while ensuring that leaders could actively sponsor and support the transformation. 

“I would advise organizations to actually have a change management function that looks at change from a broader perspective. Because without buy-in from people—if they do not see themselves in it, if they do not understand ‘why are we changing in the first place?’—then you will not attain anything that you want to achieve through change.”

— Benedict Mutuma, Head of Change Management, Bank of Kenya

The certified change practitioners developed and executed detailed plans for communication, training, and readiness assessment, conducting thorough change impact analyses that identified how the transformation would affect different stakeholder groups.

The approach recognized that changing a core banking system extends far beyond technology. Products had to be redesigned to align with new system capabilities. Processes required a complete revision to leverage new functionalities. Most critically, people needed structured support to navigate these changes successfully. The change management framework provided that structure, creating clarity about roles, expectations, and the path forward during a period of significant organizational disruption.

The Results

Co-operative Bank of Kenya successfully implemented its new core banking system with strong adoption across the organization. The structured change management approach delivered both operational and cultural outcomes that positioned the bank for sustained success.

“Obviously, if you do not have change management, you need to have it like yesterday. It is a key competency in this day and age. Organizations all over are looking for such kind of competencies because we are in an era where things are changing every single day.”

— Benedict Mutuma

From Knowledge to Ability

Through a structured change management approach, the bank employees demonstrated competency in performing their roles using the new system, rather than simply completing training requirements. This shift from knowledge to ability enabled the organization to realize the efficiency gains and enhanced customer service objectives that prompted the transformation in the first place.

Sustained behavior change

Critically, the bank sustained behavioral change well beyond the initial implementation period. Employees adopted new ways of working and continued practicing them, avoiding the common pitfall of regressing to familiar but outdated processes. This sustained adoption validated the bank’s investment in change management and ensured that the new system could deliver ongoing value.

Active executive sponsorship

The active and visible sponsorship from executive leaders proved instrumental in driving organizational buy-in. Equipped to lead change, leaders effectively communicated the organizational message about why the change was necessary, creating alignment and purpose across all levels of the bank. This clear vision and authority for change made the transformation understandable and meaningful for employees navigating significant disruption to their daily work. 

“Having active and visible sponsorship… right from the leadership of the bank, led by the Group Managing Director and the executive—they were able to be very visible and play their roles throughout the project. It meant the authority for change communication of ‘what the change is,’ the organizational message in terms of ‘why are we changing?’ was very easy for everybody in the organization to digest.”

— Benedict Mutuma

Building organizational competency

The transformation established change management as a core organizational competency at Co-operative Bank of Kenya. The bank now possesses an internal function dedicated to managing change holistically, recognizing that without employee buy-in and understanding, technical implementations cannot achieve their intended outcomes. This capability positions the organization to navigate future transformations more effectively in an era of continuous change in banking, customer expectations, and market dynamics.