Dr Charles Kimei, the Managing Director and CEO of the bank, revealed that they have discovered more than 1,500 Tanzanians living, working and trading at Lubumbashi and all of these together with their DRC counterparts are eager to have the local bank establish a full functional branch there.
“We are going about it step-by-step starting with an office, Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) dispenser and communication facilities before building an entire bank premises,” stated Dr Kimei while addressing members of the press here ahead of a shareholders conference slated for next week.
The Lubumbashi plans come after the bank recorded a remarkable performance in Burundi. CRDB’s Bujumbura Branch is doing extremely well and surprised everybody by recording a 650m/- profit in the course of last year, despite political turmoil in the East African Community (EAC) member states that has claimed lives of many people.
“This year alone our Bujumbura branch has again scored a 450 million/- profit mark within the first quarter of 2016 and we focus that, as things stabilises in Burundi, the bank there is going to be our most profitable venture yet,” pointed out Dr Kimei, adding that foreign expansion was currently a top priority for the bank which now hits its 20th anniversary this year.
As for the DRC extension, the CRDB Bank managing director said the country was ripe for investments in banking, trade and agriculture as well as construction; “People in Congo do not farm much and depend on grains, legume and other agricultural produce from mostly Tanzania and Zambia and this is the sector that our people can heavily expound on,” he said.
CRDB Group’s net profit, according to the annual report, has grown by about 35 per cent from 95.6bn/- recorded in 2014 to the current figure of 128.9bn/- in the year under review. It was reported that the growth was partly driven by a rise in net interest income of 41 per cent to 390.6bn/-.
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