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Wednesday 23 May 2012

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KCB Kenya

 

KCB, as the Kenya Commercial Bank is popularly known, is the one financial institution that is making the biggest and most positive difference in the lives of many people, not only in Kenya, but also in other countries in the eastern and Central African region.

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Kenya Commercial Bank

Making The Difference

It is a bank of many attributes, with a solid capital base, numerous branches country-wide and a wide variety of financial services and instruments.

 

Having established itself as one of the most reliable banks in Kenya, the KCB Group has looked beyond the boundaries of its original base to make itself into a regional financial giant and has become the preferred bank for big and small savers, traders, entrepreneurs and builders alike. The KCB Group has transformed itself from a purely one-country-based, State-owned bank into the main player in the financial and banking sectors within the entire eastern and Central African region, with branches in Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and Rwanda.

A Giant at Home and Beyond

Solid Asset Base, Widest Outlets Network
The leading position occupied by the KCB Group in the region is securely buttressed by a formidable asset base of close to US$2.5 billion and the widest network of outlets, comprising more than 150 branches across the region and over 300 Automated Teller Machines (ATM).

 

 

 

Serving the Eastern, Great Lakes Regions
As a Financial Services Provider within the eastern and Central African region, the KCB Group has no equal. From its headquarters, which are situated in an imposing whitepainted building right in the centre of Nairobi, KCB controls a vast financial business and banking empire. The giant financial institution, whose shareholding is now mostly in private hands with many small savers, prides itself on being the “Green Bank” of the region.

 

Destined for Greatness
The next destination in the strategic plan of the KCB Group in the Great Lakes Region is to move into Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) once the security and political situation in those two countries stabilises sufficiently for sustainable financial and banking business. In Tanzania and Uganda, the KCB Group is already making a name for itself in the financial markets.

 

As a financial and banking institution, the KCB Group now consists of the Kenya Commercial Bank (a combined retail and merchant bank); Savings and Loan (S&L – a mortgage lender); KCB Uganda Limited; KCB Tanzania Limited; KCB Sudan Limited and KCB Rwanda Limited. The bank’s branches in the different countries are registered and licensed as autonomous corporations owned by the Group. The KCB Group is currently listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) and on the Kampala and Dar es Salaam bourses.

From State to Public Ownership

 

The Government of Kenya, the original and principal shareholder of the KCB Group, has gradually reduced its stake in the financial institution to the current 23.1 per cent through the public sale of its shares at the NSE. Last year, a second rights Issue by the Kenya Government, which raised additional capital in the region of US$80 million (KSh5.5 billion), was one of the largest at the most active bourse in the region.

 

Historically, the KCB Group can be described as the oldest financial institution in the eastern and Central African region, tracing its roots to 1896, when one of its progenitors, the National Bank of India, opened its first outlet at Mombasa, now Kenya’s leading port and second largest city. Eight years later, in 1904, the National Bank of India established a branch in Nairobi, which had become the headquarters of the newly constructed Uganda Railway.

Exponential Growth

 

In 1970, the Government of Kenya bought the remaining foreign-owned 40 per cent stake in the National and Grindlays Bank to take full control of the then largest commercial bank in the country. National and Grindlays Bank was then renamed the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB). Two years later, in 1972, KCB took over the ownership of Savings & Loan, which specialised in mortgage finance. KCB and its various financial services were growing rapidly.

 

The first branch of this giant financial institution outside Kenya was established in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1997 as Kenya Commercial Bank or KCB (Tanzania) Limited. Other branches have since been established in three of the largest Tanzanian urban centres of Arusha, Dar es Salaam and Mwanza. In pursuit of its vision to be the best bank in the region, KCB extended its financial and banking services to southern Sudan. The South Sudanese subsidiary, KCB Sudan Limited, now has branches in Juba and Rumbek.

 

Further expansion to make the KCB Group the largest and most prestigious financial and banking institution within the eastern and Central African region took place in 2007 with the establishment of KCB Bank Uganda Limited. Then in December 2008 the latest subsidiary, KCB Rwanda, began its operations, with ready plans for rapid expansion.

 

KCB’s balance sheet now stands at KSh183 billion, making it one of the largest in the region.

 

 

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