President Uhuru Kenyatta visit to Somalia on Monday September 12,2016 has seen Kenya Commercial Bank get approval to open a subsidiary in the neighbouring country.
According to a statement from the State House, President Kenyatta won the concession from Somalia’s leadership for KCB to open an office in Mogadishu before the end of the year.
This is after the president held a meeting with Somalia president Hassan Mohamoud on the sideline of the just concluded special Igad summit in Mogadishu.
“President Kenyatta secured an agreement from the Somali government to allow Kenya Commercial Bank to open an office in Mogadishu before the end of the year. The leaders also agreed that the two countries will continue their cooperation in security while Kenya will help Somalia strengthen its public service,” read the statement in part.
The new development comes at a time when president Kenyatta held bilateral talks with the Somalia government who agreed to lift the ban on Miraa. Meru Governor Peter Munya remarks that undermined the sovereignty of the Somalia country had seen the country ban the product from Kenya.
Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) had also applied for an operating licence in Somalia, where only four per cent of the population is banked but has as yet not received the go ahead to start operations.
KCB currently operates in Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi.
SOURCE:The Exchange
