Bank of Kigali has been listed among Africa’s top 100 banks in the latest African Business Magazine ranking. The ranking among other aspects consider top 100 banks in terms of Tier 1 capital, made up of their capital, reserves, retained earnings, minority interests. This is Bank of Kigali’s first feature on the ranking as well as the first local bank to feature on the ranking. The bank was ranked 100th position with tier 1 capital set at $189m. Bank of Kigali is a subsidiary of BK Group which has three other subsidiaries; BK Insurance, BK TecHouse and BK Capital. BK Group reported a profit of Rwf14.6 billion in the first six months of 2019 with the bank and insurance arms making the most contributions to growth. The bank’s strategy to increase impact and relevance in the country currently includes increased lending to emerging small and medium enterprises and little served sectors such as agriculture. The bank has since launched a product; Ikofi to financially include agriculture sector stakeholders. The bank is also betting on migrating its clientele to digital channels, such as the application and internet banking, among others to deliver new products and experiences, especially to underserved segments of the economy and key population demographics like the youth and the unbanked. This is one of the bank’s digital efforts in a bid to increase financial inclusion, ease credit access and reach out to more clients. Bank of Kigali plans to grow the number of customers to one million by 2021, from the over 400,000 the bank currently has, according to the lender’s projections. editor@newtimesrwanda.com
