Advertisement

CBA seeks licence to start operating in Rwanda next year

Tuesday November 24 2015

Commercial Bank of Africa, Kenya’s largest privately owned bank, has applied for a licence in Rwanda, joining a growing queue of local lenders investing in Kigali, its top management said Monday.

CBA plans to start operations in the first half of next year and will be the fifth Kenyan bank to set up in the Rwandan market, following in the footsteps of KCB, Equity, I&M Bank and GT Bank, previously Fina Bank.

The bank which currently operates in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania also disclosed its plan to partner with a West African bank to start offering online and mobile banking services in a Francophone nation next year.

“We are in the final stages of applying for a banking licence in Rwanda with expectations to be operational in the early part of next year,” said the group managing director, Isaac Awuondo.

The bank, associated with the wealthy Kenyatta family, has made known its intentions to be operational in 10 African countries by the end of 2017. Some of the markets targeted by the lender include South Sudan, Mozambique, DRC and Ethiopia.

Mr Awuondo said the lender planned to have a core business presence in all Eastern African nations, indicating plans to open branches in South Sudan and Burundi, while the others could be served through online presence.

Advertisement

The bank has grown to be the largest retail lender in the country on the basis of M-Shwari – a mobile phone-based product operated in partnership with Safaricom.

The mobile presence also catapulted the bank to the top-tier lender in Kenya, displacing CfC Stanbic.

Rwanda has proven to be a good hunting ground for Kenya lenders, accounting for approximately 20 per cent of the Ksh5.5 billion profit recorded by regional subsidiaries, including in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan last year.

CBA is also increasing its branch network in the country with a target of having 40 branches by end of 2018, up from 24 at the beginning of the year.

Advertisement