NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 22 – Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) has opened three more branches in Southern Sudan raising its branch network in that country to five.
KCB Sudan Managing Director Daniel Mavindu said the move is meant to meet the immense demand for banking services in the vast region.
KCB has registered good growth in Southern Sudan since we started operating there. We have seen significant growth in our client base which enabled the bank to record Sh530 million in pre-tax profits for the year ended December 2008. Our balance sheet has also recorded a marked growth reaching over Sh10 billion,” Mr Mavindu said.
He noted the opening of the new branches in Bentu, Yei, and Juba Main is a result of the bank’s growing confidence in the new economy of Southern Sudan, a country emerging from shadows of protracted war.
“The initial focus of the bank has been transactional banking, including basic cash management and foreign exchange. Expansion of the operation now gives the bank impetus to increase its product offerings to meet the demands of various sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, mining and construction, which have exhibited higher potential for growth,” Mr Mavindu said.
“We believe there are sufficient opportunities in that country for us to grow our business through this expansion in order to increase shareholder value.”
He said the bank’s quest for increased regional presence would continue while noting that the bank’s business units in Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda had settled well.
“KCB Uganda has nine branches in operation with two more awaiting opening, which offers good synergy with KCB Sudan and Kenya. Work has already commenced on five more branches that will target the Eastern region to lay ground for entry into the Democratic Republic of Congo,” he said.
The bank has eight branches in Tanzania and one branch in Rwanda, which opened for business in December 2008.
He said plans to begin operations in Burundi before the end of this year to complete its East African regional expansion puzzle.
