CRDB Bank Plc (DSE:CRDB), a private commercial bank headquartered in Tanzania and with branches in Burundi, has recently announced its plans to extend its operations to Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to tap the bank’s larger lending capacity after a successful issue of rights in August, 2015 that extended its capital base to over TZS 500 billion.
The right issuance of 435,306,432 shares at a price of TZS 350 helped CRDB to raise its lending capacity to over TZS 150 billion, reason why the proceeds will not only be used for national but also regional expansion.
The bank is currently finalizing feasibility studies for both countries and it expects the opening of new branches in 2016, even though the exact date has not been released.
The success on the issuance of rights encouraged the bank to target other markets in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and currently the regulatory environment and customer’s profile is being evaluated to anticipate the market, explained CRDB Managing Director, Dr. Charles Kimei.
The bank has successfully supplied the Tanzanian market with 36 new branches extending the total network to 166 branches, over 400 ATMs, 36 service centres, and improved its mobile and internet banking services, this is why it is time to expand the business abroad to make the bank the best in Africa towards its 20th anniversary, Dr. Kimei added.
With a strong balance sheet of over the TZS 5 trillion, the bank is aiming also at bigger borrowers abroad, he concluded.
According to the last company’s quarterly results, CRDB extended its balance sheet from TZS 4.9 trillion as of June 30th, 2015 to TZS 5.1 trillion in September 30th, 2015.
CRDB currently accounts for 20.50% of the USD 6.78 billion lent to private sector in Tanzania with approximately USD 1.39 billion in loans as of September, 2015.
There are currently 19 banks registered in Zambia while 29 in DRC with Access Bank, Barclays Bank, Citibank, Ecobank and Stanbic Bank with presence in both countries.
Meanwhile, Tanzania and DRC share a total of 7 banks named Access Bank, Advans Bank, Barclays Bank, Citibank, Ecobank, Stanbic Bank, and United Bank for Africa.
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