Kenyan Bank Named Africa’s Best Bank For SMEs
Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) has been ranked Africa’s best bank for Small Medium Enterprises during the Euromoney Awards for Excellence 2019 among other banking institutions which brought the highest levels of service, innovation, and expertise to the industry.
Guaranty Trust Bank was named Africa’s best bank 2019, Equity bank was named Africa’s best digital bank, Standard Chartered was named Africa’s best investment bank while Absa was awarded Africa’s best bank for transformation.
Samuel Makome, KCB Group Chief Operating Officer said that the award reflected the bank’s socio-economic contribution to the region and its commitment to creating value in the real economy.
“Our focus is on innovation that considers all the possible customer touch points to enable them pay, borrow, save simply. With a focus on digital innovation, transactions have shifted away from branches to non-branch platforms standing at 88 percent of the total volumes, compared to 13 percent handled at the branches,” Makome said.
The bank has established its presence in 6 countries and it has the largest branch network of 258 branches. Over time, the bank noted that the SME sector presents it with an opportunity for growth owing to its great resilience even in the face of the harsh economic climate.
The Kenyan bank has also set up an SME Banking arm which has up to 12,000 active club members in Kenya and more than 4, 000 in South Sudan and Rwanda.
Last year, it signed a USD 100 Mn Line of Credit (LOC) partnership with African Development Bank (AfDB) which was aimed at boosting lending to corporate businesses, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
The award adds to the list of many other awards won by the bank including; Best Bank by Global Finance Best Bank Awards; Best Digital Transformation in Online Banking and Best CSR Initiative Awards by Global Business Outlook; Best Regional Bank and Best Innovation Bank by Africa Banker Awards and the Most Admired Financial Services Award by Brand 100.
Featured Image Courtesy: KBC
