Why economic blocs need responsive financial players

The idea of forming regional economic blocs among counties is laudable. The plan by the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) to establish a regional bank to support inter-county development should not cause apprehension among financial sector players.

Locally, jitters could be premised on a fallacy that Kenya is overbanked. It is important to put the idea of setting up a regional development bank into perspective to allay fears and debate that a lender for LREB is a bad idea, according to a recent opinion article in the Financial Standard. According to the article, Kenya is overbanked.