Madison Insurance boss shares his unknown little passion

Chief executive of Madison Insurance Joshua Njiru runs a busy and tight schedule. Twenty four hours is hardly enough to balance the demands of the board, his staff while at the same time keep an eye on his family.

“My typical day starts at 4:50am and ends at around 9pm,” says the 45-year-old father of four who has an extensive practice in venture capital.

Njiru was for a long time involved in four different undertakings before Madison came calling almost eight years ago. He spent two years in the insurance business and a six-year spell at Madison Asset management.

After graduating from the University of Nairobi with a Bachelor’s degree in Land Economics, he spent a few years working for several companies, big and small, and got opportunities to lead some key projects that helped organisations drive improvement and efficiencies.

“I started as property manager and valuer, worked as an accountant, left accounting and went to consultancy with Deloitte in corporate finance. I later joined a sister company to Standard Chartered Bank, First Africa as a consultant corporate finance before joining Old Mutual before joining the insurance business,” says Njiru.

He worked his way up the ladder and was hired chief executive in April 2015. He attributes his achievements to God, family, honest dealings and compassionate staff.

Njiru, a soft-spoken bloke, over six inches tall, does not consider himself a “bright student”. Despite his many achievements he never imagined of heading an insurance company in such aptitude.

“I come from a family of 10 and my father was a primary school teacher, who supported us all through our education.  He instilled seeds of hard work and aggression,” said Njiru.

Besides his day job at Madison insurance company, Njiru is an active stocks market and bonds trading follower.

He makes decent money just by discerning best performing firms at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) before securing shares into those firms. He later flogs the shares at higher returns.

“I invest my money wisely, I don’t run a matatu business neither am I involved in farming, that’s stressful. My work is really simple, I monitor the company, study the market before buying stocks.

I have made money buying shares from many companies, I have equally lost but made good returns in most cases. The secret is patience and getting in when it is low and out when it is high,” he advises.