Equity Group has opened a representative office in Ethiopia as the country opens doors to its financial sector.
According to a statement issued by the bank on Thursday, Hassan Maalim will be in charge of the office located in Addis Ababa, and that is expected to be fully operational in July.
“Equity’s entry into Ethiopia is part of our phase two expansion in pursuit of our aspiration of being a Pan-African bank with a presence in 10 African countries by the end of the year. It will enable the bank to continue to scale up and unlock economies of scale especially in this era of digitization and virtualization of banking,” said Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi.
Equity Group becomes the second bank from Kenya to open a branch in Ethiopia, following after KCB Group that also set up a representative office in Addis.
The lender’s foray into Ethiopia will give it access to a total of 500 million customers in the half dozen markets in which it operates that include South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda.
The East African country has been working in conjunction with the World Bank to make its financial sector accessible to foreign investment.
This is in a bid to reverse a Marxist junta that had nationalized lenders four decades ago. Modernization of the country’s payment system and the establishment of a capital market are some of the major changes expected to take place.