Britam group CIO Tom Juma is no ordinary tech leader. With a career built on turning around broken systems, a sharp sense of humour, and a deep commitment to business-first IT, Tom is redefining what it means to lead in the digital era.
Tom Juma exudes a refreshing mix of strategic insight, business focus and plenty of humour – without throwing in jargon or heavy systems talk. His easy-going demeanour is sprinkled with jokes and light moments, making him a rare breed of IT executive.
Tom, who prides himself in having spent his career transforming broken systems, believes tech is ultimately about service to humankind.
“I have had the misfortune of going to organisations where the systems are not working and making them work. That has been my misfortune since I started my first job,” he jokes. And what is his secret? “First, understand the business, I am not there to pull wires. It is about stakeholder engagement and speaking a language the business can understand, not technology.”
When Tom heard about CITO East Africa, a dedicated community for CIOs to collaborate, share challenges, and drive the region’s tech agenda forward, his reaction was instant and heartfelt. “What you’re talking about is music to my ears,” he says, adding that it has always been his long-held belief that technology leaders thrive not in isolation, but in connection.
Having previously struggled to rally peers without a central platform, Tom welcomes the structure and support that CITO brings, emphasising that such a community fills a critical gap: “It was not easy organising ourselves, but now that someone is helping, that makes all the difference.”
He is enthusiastic about a platform for IT leaders to share challenges and collectively engage in topical issues like cybersecurity, data governance, vendor dominance and AI disruption, saying this is a huge step to break the silos and work collaboratively.
“There is no such thing as competition in tech… It is about coopetition, working together for the betterment of our customers and society at large,” he quips.
With over two decades in financial services spanning leadership roles across banks, insurance and investment firms, Tom is well-versed in the complexity and pressures of modern IT leadership. At Britam, he oversees a multi-country tech portfolio and reports directly to the group CEO. It is a position that demands deep business acumen, stakeholder fluency and constant innovation. “Gone are the days when IT was a back-office function,” he says. “Today, technology is the business.”
Shaping financial institutions
And just how did he find himself in this career? Tom initially enrolled in university to study accounting, but quickly realised it was not for him. He jokes, “I was taught that debit and credits must balance. So then, how do I make money? What is this? Life itself does not balance.”
After finding accounting boring, he switched to technology on the advice of an older friend who saw Tom’s inquisitive mind and urged him to pursue something more dynamic and challenging. That spontaneous decision, made at a time when IT was not a popular path, became the start of a career that would later shape major financial institutions across East Africa.
As with all careers, it is not all smooth sailing, as Tom notes that one of the growing threats to the business is cybersecurity.
“You asked what is keeping me awake at night? It is the issues of cybersecurity that have become an elevated risk. You want to offer convenience to customers… they want to go to their portal or their phone and transact. But that convenience comes with a cost – or a risk – from an IT perspective. If today you go to your bank and you are told your account has been cleaned out, you do not care how fast or how good their mobile app was. It is your money. So that keeps me awake,” says Tom.
Tom does not shy away from calling out the power imbalance with big global tech vendors. “On your own, you can’t take them on, they’ll just steamroll you,” he said. “But if we come together as a community, we can do something about it. We can organise training, negotiate better and even support our local vendors to level up.”
For Tom, being a tech leader is not just about keeping systems secure, it is about helping people grow. He often speaks at universities and mentors young professionals, a majority of whom are technically brilliant but, as he puts it, “have little business ethics or customer understanding”. He adds that sharing knowledge is non-negotiable. “Knowledge not shared is useless,” he said. “It’s not just about writing good code – it’s about knowing how to solve real-world problems.”
When he is not deep in strategy or solving tech problems, Tom likes to unwind with a round of tennis, although he is quick to admit that he does it more for fun than winning. He also loves to travel and recharge. But even in those quieter moments, his purpose does not take a break; he is all about making a difference in the industry and beyond. That is why he is fully on board with CITO East Africa. “Count me in,” he said. “This is how we grow.”
