President Uhuru Kenyatta has today unveiled the new brand of EquityBCDC, a subsidiary of Kenya’s Equity Group Holdings Plc in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
This was as a result of the acquisition of Banque Commerciale Du Congo (BCDC) in a transaction worth USD 95 Million and a German bank ProCredit, which was rebranded to Equity Bank Congo. In December last year, Equity Group was given the regulatory approval to merge its subsidiary Equity Bank Congo (EBC) and Banque Commercial Du Congo (BCDC) to form EquityBCDC.
The merged entity, EquityBCDC, has a balance sheet of over USD 3 billion and a nationwide footprint of 74 branches, 214 ATMs, 13 local dedicated desks, 3055 agents, a staff complement of 1156, and a customer base of over one million.
Speaking during the unveiling ceremony, President Uhuru congratulated Equity for the milestone of its successful acquisition, integration, and merger to create EquityBCDC, which is now the second-largest commercial bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He urged private investors to optimize on the opportunities availed by regional cooperation frameworks such as the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to create regional supply chains, observing that the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic had created a paradigm shift in global supply chains such as health, agriculture, and manufacturing. He commended regional financial networks such as Equity Group Holdings for playing an important role in the success of regional cooperation by providing a seamless financial services intermediation across different markets.
Dr. James Mwangi, Equity Group Managing Director and CEO of Equity Group Holdings had this to say, “With its size, footprint, experience, aspiration and ambition, EquityBCDC has the distinctive capacity and unique capability to significantly contribute to positive transformation in the lives of the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He added that Large corporate clients will particularly benefit from local credit facilities to the tune of USD 40 million on a Single Obligor Limit. By leveraging Equity Group’s balance sheet, lending capacity on a Single Obligor basis can be set as high as USD 350 million, allowing Equity BCDC to make a real contribution to turn-key structural projects and the economy of DRC. As a subsidiary of Equity Group Holdings, Equity BCDC will add to the Groups’ capability to play a key role in regional economic development by facilitating cross border trade especially through trade finance and payments.,” Dr Mwangi added that the expansion of Equity in […]