Bank of Kigali has decided to close its Kenyan offices in a new restructuring plan.
The move has further prompted Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to cancel the operation license issued to Bank to operate a physical office in the country.
In a statement to newsrooms the banking regulator said the voluntary termination of BoK’s presence in Kenya follows a strategic decision taken by the lender’s parent company to focus more on digital service delivery channels.
Bank of Kigali is the largest commercial bank in the East African state followed by Bank Populaire du Rwanda (BPR) and I&M Bank.
Following the directive, the lender will now join Uganda's main electricity distributor UMEME among cross listed lenders at the NSE without representative office in Kenya.
“CBK announces the cancellation of the authority granted to the Bank of Kigali (BoK) to operate a Representative Office in Kenya under Section 43 of the Banking Act, effective April 2, 2024,” the
CBK authorised the establishment of Bank of Kigali’s Representative Office in Kenya on February 12, 2013.
In 2018, Bank of Kigali became the second firm in the region to cross-list its shares on the NSE, after Uganda’s utility firm Umeme, which cross-listed in 2012.
BoK, headquartered in Kigali, is a banking institution founded in 1966, licensed and supervised by the National Bank of Rwanda under the Law governing the organisation of banking.
The Government of Rwanda controls majority shareholding in the bank while the remaining portion is held between institutional and retail shareholders. Bank of Kigali is also cross listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
The lender had in October last year become first firm listed in two markets to make it to the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) 20 Share Index.
Experts had seen this as an opportunity for the bank to make inroads into the Kenyan Market.
The NSE 20 Share Index is a market capitalisation weighted index that comprises the top 20 companies listed on the Nairobi Bourse.
Listed companies cross-list shares with hopes of reducing the cost of capital raising, diversify their investor base, increase the share price, improve liquidity of the stock, improve visibility and shore up the market share for their products and services.
