Ugandan businessman Charles Mbire and Kenyan banker James Mwangi have seen the market value of their publicly traded shareholdings rise above US$100 million, placing them among a small group of East African investors whose wealth through listed equities has crossed the centi-millionaire threshold.
Unlike wealth estimates based largely on privately held companies, real estate and other assets, the value of the two businessmen’s listed holdings can be tracked through share prices on the region’s stock exchanges and is therefore continuously repriced by the market.
For Mbire, the milestone has been driven primarily by his substantial holding in MTN Uganda, while Mwangi’s position stems from his stake in Equity Group Holdings, listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
Mbire’s MTN Uganda stake tops US$100 million
Mbire, chairman and non-executive director of MTN Uganda, holds approximately 895.56 million shares in the telecom company, equivalent to about 4 percent of its issued shares.
The strong performance of MTN Uganda shares in 2026 has significantly increased the market value of his holding.
Recent market data put Mbire’s MTN Uganda stake at approximately US$101.8 million, compared with about US$77.94 million at the end of 2025. That represents an increase of roughly US$23.9 million in market value since the beginning of the year.
At current exchange rates, the MTN Uganda holding is equivalent to roughly UGX400 billion.
The figure represents only the market value of Mbire’s stake in MTN Uganda.
A separate review of disclosed holdings in eight companies listed on the Uganda Securities Exchange valued his identified interests in MTN Uganda and Bank of Baroda Uganda at approximately UGX408.72 billion.
The value of listed shares, however, fluctuates with market prices and should not be interpreted as cash holdings or a fixed measure of personal wealth.
In Kenya, James Mwangi, the long-serving chief executive officer of Equity Group Holdings, has reached a similar milestone through his substantial ownership of the banking group.
Equity Group disclosures show that Mwangi holds 127,809,180 shares, representing approximately 3.39 percent of the company.
For much of 2026, the market value of his Equity stake remained below US$100 million. A sharp rise in Equity Group’s share price has since pushed the value of the holding above the threshold.
According to recent market reporting, Mwangi’s stake was worth approximately KSh13.13 billion, equivalent to about US$101.4 million, as of September 21, 2026.
That represents an increase of approximately KSh4.6 billion from the beginning of the year, when his holding was valued at about KSh8.53 billion.
The increase reflects the appreciation in Equity Group’s share price rather than the acquisition of additional shares, based on the figures cited.
The milestones reached by Mbire and Mwangi highlight the growing role of East Africa’s capital markets in creating and repricing significant personal wealth.
