Sarah Arapta is the Chief Executive and Managing Director for Citibank Uganda, Uganda’s 10th largest bank by assets. She has held this role since January 2016.
Sarah has had an extensive and illustrious career in Corporate and Investment Banking spanning over 20 years, 12 of which have been spent in Citibank Uganda.
Prior to being appointed the Citibank Chief Executive, she was the Director, Corporate and Investment Banking at Barclays Bank Uganda (now Absa Bank Uganda) for nearly two years. Before that, she was the Head of Investment Banking (January 2012 – December 2013) and Head of Corporate Banking (March 2009 – December 2011) at Stanbic Bank Uganda.
Sarah is the first woman and indeed the first Ugandan to be appointed Chief Executive and Managing Director of Citibank in Uganda.
During her leadership, Citibank’s deposits have grown by 2.4 times (144.8%) from UGX417.3 billion in 2015 to UGX1.02 trillion at the end of 2022⏤ a CAGR of 13.6%. As a result, lending grew 2.3 times (128.3%) from UGX183 billion to UGX417.7 billion, a compounded annual growth rate of 12.5%.
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Growth (%) | Growth (*) | CGAR | |
| Deposits | 417.3 | 639.0 | 547.9 | 536.1 | 656.8 | 672.9 | 851.1 | 1,021.5 | 144.8 | 2.4 | 13.6% |
| Lending | 183.0 | 214.3 | 261.3 | 310.3 | 169.6 | 228.0 | 410.0 | 417.7 | 128.3 | 2.3 | 12.5% |
| PAT | 30.2 | 50.6 | 39.3 | 42.1 | 39.6 | 36.7 | 55.3 | 52.4 | 73.5 | 1.7 | 8.2% |
| Assets | 712.7 | 951.1 | 926.3 | 913.1 | 990.7 | 996.3 | 1,409.1 | 1,457.8 | 104.5 | 2.0 | 10.8% |
Throughout this time, the bank has been profitable with profitability growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 8.2%. Most importantly the bank’s assets have doubled (104.5%) from UGX712.7 billion to UGX1.41 trillion in 2022. In her time, she has also firmed up the bank’s position in the top 10 banks, across all key fundamentals, except lending ⏤deposits, income, net profit and assets.
Industry leadership & qualifications
How Stanbic Bank CFO Ronald Makata Blends Governance, Technology and Human Leadership to Drive PerformanceSarah is also the current Chairperson of the Uganda Bankers Association (UBA), a role she assumed in June 2021 and before that was the Vice Chairperson since
She is an advocate of women’s empowerment and is passionate about
delivering with impact. Sarah is an ardent jogger and swimmer.
She holds an MBA from Herriot-Watt University Edinburgh Business School Scotland and a B.A Economics from Makerere University Kampala.
She has also completed several certifications such as Leading Operational Excellence (MIT Sloan School of Management), Leading Effective Decision Making (Yale School of Management) and Leading Strategic Growth from the Columbia Business School.
