Co-Op Bank renames Jamii Bora, appoints new Board and CEO

Jamii Bora Bank has been renamed Kingdom Bank after the acquisition by Co-operative Bank of Kenya, which is now the majority shareholder with a holding of 90 per cent of the shares.

The bank has announced the appointment of a new board and Chief Executive Officer as part of its transformation.

Margaret Karangatha, who has been a board member of Co-Operative Bank since September 2019, will serve as the new chairperson of the board of Kingdom Bank Limited, while Anthony Mburu will replace Timothy Kabiru as the new Chief Executive Officer.

Anthony has been a long-serving director of credit management at Cooperative Bank and a close associate of the Group Managing Director and CEO Gideon Muriuki.

The other board members of Kingdom Limited are Macloud Malonza, Julius Sitienei, and Gideon Muriuki, who are all serving as Board Members of the Co-operative Bank.

The Central Bank of Kenya approved the acquisition of Jamii Bora by the Co-operative Bank of Kenya earlier in August. The deal has also since been approved by the Capital Markets Authority and Competition Authority of Kenya and is the second acquisition in as many years.

In 2019, KCB Group acquired the National Bank of Kenya, becoming the first time in the history of the country where a Nairobi Securities Exchange-listed lender acquired another listed lender.

The Kenyan banking scene has been very active since the appointment of Dr. Patrick Njoroge as the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya in 2015.  In the past five years, consolidation in Kenya’s Banking industry has picked pace as the relatively smaller banks become acquired by larger banks while relatively larger banks merge and form partnerships.

Merger

Speaking at a past event Kenya Bankers Association CEO Dr. Habil Olaka said that it is a good sign that the current consolidations are market driven and not regulator driven.