DFCU Selling Crane Bank Rwanda

March 21, 2017 in Business, Companies by Editor

KAMPALA, MARCH 21 – Bank of Kigali Bk, Rwanda’s biggest lender by assets is in contention with Commercial Bank of Africa’s Rwandan subsidiary for the assets of defunct Crane Bank Rwanda limited.

The development comes after the Ugandan lender who took over Crane Bank’s balance sheet last October, decided to spinoff the Rwandan assets rather than venture into what would have been its first cross-border banking operation.

“DFCU was forced to accept Crane Bank’s Rwandan subsidiary but because they had no immediate plans of growing beyond Uganda, they decided to dispose of the asset,” a source familiar with the goings on told www.256businessnews.com

BK and CBA have each concluded their independent due diligence of the bank and DFCU is now waiting for offers.

Crane Bank Rwanda had only two branches but in typical Sudhir fashion, DFCU found that the operation was an ordinary tenant in the massive property development by Crane Management Services in Kigali’s Muhima sector, where the bank is headquartered. The only real assets according to sources, is the 5 billion Rwandan francs ($6million) in statutory deposits the lender held with sector regulator BNR (Rwanda’s central bank) and about 1000 customer accounts, the bulk of them retail. The lender has only a handful of sizeable corporate accounts, one held by an insurer and the other by a property developer.

It was not immediately clear why Bk would be interested in Crane Bank or how it would benefit from the acquisition. But for CBA which opened doors in Rwanda only last year and is banking on its micro-credit loan product with MTN Rwanda’s Mobile Money, taking over Crane Bank would allow it to grow its customer base almost overnight at minimal cost.