NCBA Group, a financial services conglomerate owned by Kenya’s wealthiest families, has announced plans to open seven new branches by the year’s end as it prepares to expand its operations in East Africa in line with its retail expansion strategies.
The announcement comes nearly a year after NCBA Group, one of Kenya’s largest listed financial services companies, announced an ambitious branch growth program last year, with 18 branches opened around the region in the past 18 months.
This year alone, the group has launched four branches in Kenya. It aims to add seven more by the end of the year, bringing its total branch count to 115 from 104 when the year began.
NCBA Group Managing Director John Gachora said the new branches will offer job opportunities across the country and broaden the group’s reach in the financial services industry.
“The opening of these branches creates job opportunities across the country and enables us to take our services closer to the people,” he said. “We believe that this wider distribution network allows us to contribute directly to the country’s economic growth agenda.”
Gachora went on to state that the move, which aligns with the group’s retail expansion strategy, is backed by its continual evaluation of NCBA’s banking and financial services products and services as it works to make its offers more appealing to the communities that it serves.
NCBA Group is a Nairobi-based financial services conglomerate that operates as a non-operating holding through its vast network of subsidiaries in Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and Cote d’Ivoire.
The Kenyan banking firm, which has 109 branches in five countries including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ivory Coast, was founded in 2019 through the merger of NIC Bank Group and Commercial Bank of Africa Group.
It is led by the wealthy Kenyatta, Merali, and Ndegwa families. Earlier this year, the super-rich families received a total dividend of Ksh1.02 billion ($8.89 million) from their shareholdings in NCBA Group.
The family of late Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta received a dividend of Ksh489.4 million ($4.27 million) from their 13.2-percent stake in the Kenyan lender.
Meanwhile, the Ndegwa brothers (Andrew and James) and the late Nashaud Merali family received dividends of Ksh311.68 million ($2.72 million) and Ksh218.9 million ($1.91 million), respectively, from their 8.4- and 5.9-percent stakes in NCBA Group.
