Markets in shock as EADB posts $8.9m loss on bad political loans

Heads could roll at the top management of the East African Development Bank as it emerges that East Africa’s largest regional bank and foremost development finance institution has just made a massive anticipated loss of $8.9 million.

The new results, which were quietly released last week four months behind schedule, have jolted the capital markets in the region — revealing for the first time that EADB has, away from the limelight, been suffocating under the weight of huge “political loans” that have seen its non-performing loan portfolio hit an unprecedented level.