NAIROBI, October 16 – The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) is still determined to list on the Uganda and Tanzania stock exchanges despite the turbulence facing the financial markets.
KCB Group Chief Executive Officer Martin Oduor-Otieno said the bank which has already presented its applications to the authorities of the two countries is expecting an approval for Uganda before the end of November.
“Clearly there are problems going on in the financial markets but I believe they are short-term, so for us the cross listing is still of value especially as a regional bank,” Mr Oduor-Otieno said on Thursday.
In the meantime, the institution is preparing to roll out a new core banking system – Temenos T24 –which has been in the pipeline over the last one and half years.
The Sh1.2 billion system is expected to assist the bank to consolidate a number of functions currently being offered by separate systems as well as to automate its revenue collection.
“In the near future we expect to be able to provide internet banking for our customers, some of whom are already on our Quickpay System,”Mr Odour-Otieno explained.
He revealed that all 275 KCB branches countrywide will be closed between Saturday, October 18 and Monday October 20, to activate the system. The ATM network, however, will remain operational.
“Our project and branch teams will work throughout the long weekend to prepare the system to go “live” on Monday October 20, 2008. Come Tuesday morning our branches will open for business on the new platform,” said Mr Odour-Otieno.
