NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 22 – NIC Bank has set its foot in Zanzibar with a new branch. “The new branch was opened on Thursday at Muzammil Centre on Mlandege Road,” the bank announced.
The move comes as the bank is working on a merger with Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA). The merger is expected to be completed in the second half of 2019. Until then, the two entities will continue to operate independently.
CBA shareholders will own 53 per cent of the merged business with NIC Bank while NIC Bank shareholders will own 47 per cent.
The merger will propel the entity to be the second largest bank in customer base in Kenya and third largest by assets.
The new entity will have 40 million customers across five regional economic centres including Nairobi, Kampala, Dar es Salaam, Kigali and Abidjan making it the largest bank in Africa by customer numbers.
In asset base, the combined bank will be among
the largest financial institution in the East African region with an asset base of Sh444 billion about 100 branches with a shareholders’ equity of Sh65 billion.