Kenyan tycoon Joshua Oigara’s KCB Group launches new subsidiary in Rwanda after merger

KCB Group, a Kenya-based financial services holding company led by renowned businessman and leading executive Joshua Oigara, has established a new subsidiary in Rwanda as the financial services conglomerate seeks to double its regional business in the next two years and support economic growth in the East African country.

The strategic move comes nearly five weeks after KCB received regulatory approval from the National Bank of Rwanda to merge its Rwandan operations, KCB Bank Rwanda, with its recently acquired bank, Banque Populaire du Rwanda (BPR), to form BPR Bank Plc Rwanda.

The integration of BPR Bank Plc as a new entity under KCB is the first step in the group’s strategic expansion and diversification plans, with BPR Bank now ranking as Rwanda’s second-largest lender.

This would give KCB a competitive advantage in expanding its corporate and retail banking operations in the country, as well as bolster its investments in Rwanda, where the lender intends to invest heavily to drive growth in key economic sectors such as housing, agriculture and hospitality.

Oigara, the group’s CEO, said the integration of the new business into the group’s operations will allow KCB to strengthen its leadership position in East and Central Africa.

He went on to say that the operation of BPR as an entity under KCB will give the lender a stronger edge in driving the East African financial inclusion agenda, while also building a robust and financially sustainable organization.

KCB Group operates as a holding company for KCB Bank Kenya, National Bank of Kenya and regional subsidiaries in Tanzania, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia.

Under the leadership of Oigara, the group’s CEO since 2013 and a key figure in the bank’s restructuring into a non-operating holding company in 2016, the bank has grown into one of the Nairobi Securities Exchange’s most capitalized firms, with a capitalization of Ksh120 billion ($1.04 billion).

KCB Group announced plans to expand its operations in Central Africa by acquiring a commercial bank in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in an effort to deepen its operations in the East and Central Africa.

The proposed transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022, comes after Oigara’s financial services group expressed interest in negotiating another acquisition deal in Tanzania following its withdrawal from a bid to purchase BancABC Tanzania with UK-based Atlas Mara.