South Africa\u2019s Standard Bank aims to be Kenya\u2019s biggest lender by 2030, its regional chief told Semafor, a rare public shot at climbing East Africa\u2019s banking hierarchy as the International Monetary Fund warns that the region\u2019s economic buffers are dangerously fragile.<\/p>\n
The target is likely to sharpen competition in Kenya\u2019s already crowded banking market<\/a>, where incumbents such as KCB, Equity, and Co-op have entrenched retail and corporate franchises that put Standard Bank as the number six player by market share.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we become the largest bank in Kenya, we become the largest bank in East Africa,\u201d Joshua Oigara, Standard Bank\u2019s chief for East Africa said, adding that Kenya\u2019s market scale, payment flows, and corporate landscape make it a leading regional player.<\/p>\n Standard Bank is the third biggest bank by market share in East Africa, where economic growth of about 7%<\/a>, a growing urban population, banking reforms<\/a>, and harmonized customs have grabbed the attention of banking executives. South Africa\u2019s Nedbank is in the middle of a nearly $1 billion deal<\/a> to buy Kenya\u2019s NCBA Group, suggesting lenders\u2019 willingness to deploy capital to buy scale.<\/p>\n Oigara suggested acquisition of other Kenyan banks could occur with the right \u201ccultural fit and strategic alignment,\u201d especially as capital rules tighten and smaller banks come under pressure. But he stressed \u2014 without providing detail about funding plans or deal targets \u2014 that Africa\u2019s biggest lender is counting on regional trade links, big infrastructure projects, and digital partnerships to jump from sixth to first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa\u2019s Standard Bank aims to be Kenya\u2019s biggest lender by 2030, its regional chief told Semafor, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,184,85,46],"class_list":["post-495148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}