South African lender Nedbank sought to acquire a majority stake in Kenya’s NCBA Group to expand into East Africa.
The deal to buy 66% of NCBA would see South Africa’s fourth-largest lender gain access to NCBA’s 60 million customers across Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. East Africa is particularly attractive due to its role as a trade corridor linking Africa with the Middle East, China, and India.
NCBA is a major player in Kenya’s digital lending space through M-Shwari, a product offered in partnership with telecoms giant Safaricom that enables customers of the mobile money platform M-Pesa to save and borrow directly from their phones. Rapid population growth across Africa, combined with cheaper mobile phone handsets, and improved digital infrastructure offers opportunities to increase new banking customers faster than in other regions.
