Kenyan bank merger to counter growing West Africa lenders

Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich.

Plans to merge two Kenyan banks will create a lender that can compete adequately with West African banks that are expanding into the region, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich has said.

NIC Group, one of Kenya’s mid-sized publicly traded banks, is in merger talks with Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), the nation’s biggest closely held lender, the two said Thursday. The combined entity would rank among the country’s top three lenders.