NCBA Group Plc, is a financial services conglomerate in

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

. The Group's headquarters are located in

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

, Kenya, with subsidiaries in

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

and

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

Location

The group's headquarters are located along Mara Road, in the neighborhood called Upper Hill, in

, the Capital City of Kenya. The geographical coordinates of the group's headquarters are:01°17'52.0"S, 36°48'46.0"E (Latitude:-1.297778; Longitude:36.812778).

Overview

NCBA Group Plc is a large financial services organization in East and West Africa, with assets valued at over US$4.43 billion (KES:464.89 billion) as of December 2019. Shareholders' equity at that time was valued at approximately US$661 million (KES:69.416 billion). The group functions as a non-operating

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

for its subsidiaries in the region. As of October 2019, the group serviced an estimated 40 million customers in four East African countries and in one West African country.

History

1959–1990

National Industrial Credit (NIC) was incorporated in Kenya on 29 September 1959, when

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

-based

Standard Bank Standard Bank (officially Standard Bank Group Limited) is the largest bank in Africa, as well as the continent's biggest lender by assets. The company's corporate headquarters, Standard Bank Centre, is located in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The ...

and

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

-based Mercantile Credit Limited jointly formed the company to provide hire purchase and installment credit finance facilities in East Africa. Standard Bank held 40 percent of the venture while Mercantile Credit held the remaining 60 percent. In 1971, NIC became a public company and was listed on the then

Nairobi Stock Exchange The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) was established in 1954 as the Nairobi Stock Exchange, based in Nairobi the capital of Kenya. It was a voluntary association of stockbrokers in the European community registered under the Societies Act in ...

(NSE). Barclays Bank of Kenya Limited (BBK) acquired 51 percent of NIC's total shares through the acquisition of Mercantile in the 1970s and Standard's NIC shares in the 1980s.

1991–1999

Between 1993 and 1996, BBK divested its shares, selling 38 percent of its shares to the public in 1994 through a secondary market offering and the remaining 20 percent in 1996 to the First Chartered Securities Group (FCS). Because of changing trends, regulatory requirements in the Kenyan banking industry, and the need to meet growing customer requirements, NIC obtained a commercial banking license from the

Central Bank of Kenya The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) () is the monetary authority of Kenya. Its head office is located in Nairobi. CBK was founded by in 1966 after the dissolution of East African Currency Board (EACB). Dr. Kamau Thugge, CBS is the current Governor a ...

in September 1995. To effectively diversify into mainstream commercial banking, NIC merged in November 1997 with African Mercantile Bank Limited, which was then owned by FCS, by way of a share swap. The purpose of this merger was to allow NIC to enhance its market position, provide a broader and more efficient range of services to its customers, and increase the returns to shareholders.

2000–2008

In 2006, NIC established an

investment bank Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

NIC Capital as a wholly owned subsidiary. In 2008, NIC through its subsidiary NIC Capital acquired a 91 percent stake in Solid Securities Limited and subsequently re-branded it to NIC Securities Limited. This acquisition gave NIC Bank Group a seat at the NSE.

2009-To Date

In 2009 NIC Bank Group established NIC Insurance Agents to offer insurance brokerage and bancassurance services. In the same year, the Group made its first expansion outside Kenya through its acquisition of a 51 percent share of Savings and Finance Commercial Bank, a medium size bank in Tanzania. In December 2010, the Savings and Finance Commercial Bank was renamed NIC Bank Tanzania Limited. In 2012, the group established operations in

through NC Bank Uganda. This was a

greenfield investment In many disciplines, a greenfield project is one that lacks constraints imposed by prior work. The analogy is to that of construction on greenfield land where there is no need to work within the constraints of existing buildings or infrastructure. ...

. In December 2018, NIC Group announced that it would be merging with

Commercial Bank of Africa Group Commercial Bank of Africa Group (CBA Group) is a financial services provider in East Africa. Its headquarters are located in Nairobi, Kenya, with subsidiaries in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Ivory Coast. The CBA Group is a large financial ...

(CBA) creating Kenya's third-biggest bank. The merger involved the transfer of 100 percent of the shares of CBA Group by its shareholders to NIC Group in exchange for 53 percent of the newly formed group making the deal a

reverse merger A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compa ...

. The Transaction was approved by the Kenyan regulators and shareholders by April 2019. As of May 2019, the merged group was still operating two sets of banks in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania but was in the process of seeking regulatory approval to merge these business so that they can have one bank in each country and a group re-branding.

Merger history

The following is an illustration of NCBA Group's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors (this is not a comprehensive list):

Member companies

NCBA Group maintains the following subsidiaries, as of April 2020. # NCBA Bank Kenya:

Retail banking Retail banking, also known as consumer banking or personal banking, is the provision of services by a bank to the general public, rather than to companies, corporations or other banks, which are often described as wholesale banking (corporate ...

: Nairobi, Kenya – 100 percent shareholding – A

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make a profit. It can also refer to a bank or a division of a larger bank that deals with whol ...

in Kenya, serving individuals and businesses, focusing mainly on large corporations. This is the flagship company of the group. # NCBA Investment Bank Limited:

Investment banking Investment banking is an advisory-based financial service for institutional investors, corporations, governments, and similar clients. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by und ...

: Nairobi, Kenya – NCBA Investment Bank was established in 2005 to offer investment banking services. The group owns all the shares in the unit. # NCBA Insurance Agents:

Bancassurance Bancassurance is a relationship between a bank and an insurance company that is aimed at offering insurance products or insurance benefits to the bank's customers. In this partnership, bank staff and tellers become the point of sale and point o ...

– Nairobi, Kenya – NCBA Insurance Agents offers Bancassurance services. NCBA Group owns all of the company. # NCBA Bank Tanzania:

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (, ; from ) is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of the Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over 7 million people, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa by population and the ...

, Tanzania. After a successful rights issue in 2013, NIC Group's interest in its Tanzanian subsidiary rose from 51 percent to 68.97 percent. # NCBA Bank Uganda: Retail banking:

Kampala Kampala (, ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,875,834 (2024) and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kampala, Kawempe Division, Kawempe, Makindy ...

. The group owns all of the shares of the unit. #

NCBA Bank Rwanda NCBA Bank Rwanda, formerly ''Commercial Bank of Africa (Rwanda)'', is a commercial bank in Rwanda. NCBA Bank Rwanda is one of the Kenyan-owned bank subsidiaries to launch operations in Rwanda. The bank is a subsidiary of the NCBA Group Plc, a ...

: Retail banking:

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relativ ...

. # M-Shwari Mobile Banking: Mobile money bank service:

Abidjan Abidjan ( , ; N'Ko script, N'ko: ߊߓߌߖߊ߲߬) is the largest city and the former capital of Ivory Coast. As of the Demographics of Ivory Coast, 2021 census, Abidjan's population was 6.3 million, which is 21.5 percent of the overall population ...

.
AIG Kenya Insurance Company Limited
Offering

general insurance General insurance or non-life insurance policy, including automobile and homeowners policies, provide payments depending on the loss from a particular financial event. General insurance is typically defined as any insurance that is not determine ...

: Nairobi, Kenya – 33.33% shareholding the balance held by the

American International Group American International Group, Inc. (AIG) is an American multinational finance and insurance corporation with operations in more than 80 countries and jurisdictions. As of 2023, AIG employed 25,200 people. The company operates through three core ...

.About AIG Kenya
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Ownership

The

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

of NCBA Bank Group listed on the

, where it trades under the symbol NINC. As of December 2019, the largest shareholders in the Group's stock are as depicted in the table below:

References

External links

NCBA Group Plc Homepage

Nairobi Stock Exchange Website

Central Bank of Kenya

List of Licensed Commercial Banks in Kenya

As of 11 April 2012. {{coord, 01, 17, 52, S, 36, 48, 46, E, display=title Banks of Kenya * Companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange Companies based in Nairobi Banks established in 1959 Kenyan companies established in 1959 Companies in the NSE 20 Share Index