Mr. Omar is a seasoned banker with over 25 years’ experience in the financial industry, 18 of which is in banking across various segments, departments and countries. Mr. Omar holds B.Ed. degree from Kenyatta University and MBA from the University of Nairobi. He is a Certified Islamic Financial Executive (CIFE) from the Dubai based Ethica institute of Islamic Finance and also a Certified Corporate Governance Executive from the Centre for Corporate Governance in Africa (CCG).
Mr. Omar started off his career in banking at Barclays bank of Kenya from 2001 until 2013 and rose through the ranks to the position of vice president.
At Barclays, he founded the first Islamic product in Kenya in 2005. He was thus credited for having founded and grown Barclays bank’s full-fledged Islamic department, La Riba to undisputed Islamic leader in Kenya. Omar earned several awards while in Barclays including the prestigious Barclays Group PLC chairman’s award in London among several other performance-based awards.
He served in many countries among them Tanzania, Zambia, Seychelles, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Egypt, Ghana and Mauritius on Barclays Group PLC Control Review Project.
He later joined and led First community bank for 2 years and grew it from a tier 4 bank to a tier 3 bank in 2014. Under his leadership, he enhanced the position of the bank within his first six months, making it more aggressive and responsive through market engagement, products innovation and energized team effort among other major activities leading to the bank earning several awards.