Banque commerciale du Congo. PHOTO | COURTESY Equity Group holdings Plc (EGH) has received regulatory approval to merge Equity Bank Congo (EBC) and BCDC to form a new bank.
Going forward, the new bank will be known as, Equity Banque Commercial du Congo (EquityBCDC).
“This is an important milestone and a great new year gift to our customers in DRC. Equity BCDC will immediately have a single obligor limit of USD 40M. This will enable our customers in DRC to access higher credit limits to grow and expand their business ventures. At the same time Equity BCDC is now part of an international bank with presence in seven countries (DRC, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Rwanda, and a representative office in Ethiopia) enabling our customers to do cross border trade with ease,” said Dr James Mwangi, the Group Chief Executive Officer of EGH. This follows EGH’s acquisition of 66.53% shareholding of BCDC from the family of George Forrest, combined with prior EGH 86.6% shareholding in EBC and an additional EBC shareholding of 7.7 % acquired from KFW during the year.
Post merger, EGH holds 77.5% in Equity BCDC with the remainder being held by IFC, the Government of DRC and minority shareholders.
To avail the same level of competencies, capabilities and experiences in DRC, and to reap the benefits of the synergies from both entities, Equity migrated BCDC to the Equity Group platform on December 14, 2020.
On December 29, 2020, the Group received approval from the Central Bank of Congo to merge the two subsidiaries (BCDC and EBC) into one bank. Bank branches and other outlets of both EBC and BCDC will start to change their name and brand identity to Equity BCDC.
On leadership, the two managing directors, Mr Yves Cuypers and Mr Celestin Muntuabu and their principal deputies will continue providing leadership as the management committee with the combined board members constituting the pioneer board of Equity BCDC.
Customers of both Equity Bank and BCDC can now walk into any branch and access services such as account opening, cash deposit and withdrawal, cheque deposit and withdrawal, SWIFT, RTGS, and EFT services, request for bank statements, do internal funds transfers and ATM withdrawals.
Dr Mwangi said that with the merger, Equity BCDC had acquired the size and countrywide infrastructure, experience and capability to contribute significantly to the transformation of lives and livelihoods in DRC, while stimulating economic transformation of the country through resource allocation.
He added: […]