Kenya’s banks have long operated throughout much of east Africa. Several of the bigger ones have footholds in Tanzania and Uganda, while some have expanded into Rwanda and Burundi.
The close integration between these five countries – which form the East African Community (EAC), a customs union – has made it fairly easy for lenders from Kenya, the region’s economic powerhouse, to launch cross-border operations. They have also been helped by their sheer size relative to their regional peers. In 2009 Kenya’s banks had $14bn of assets between them, according to the International Monetary Fund. This compared with just $6bn among Tanzanian lenders and less than $4bn among Uganda’s. “Kenyan banks have big balance sheets and they are able to export their expertise into the wider region,” says Gideon Muriuki, chief executive of Co-operative Bank, one of Kenya’s five biggest banks.
