Co-operative Bank of Kenya has announced plans to acquire Kenya’s second smallest bank Jamii Bora bank (JBB), months after Commercial Bank of Africa closed buyout talks in favor of NIC Bank.

While welcoming the proposed acquisition, Central Bank of Kenya said the transaction between the two banks will diversify the business models of the two institutions and enhance the stability of the Kenyan banking sector.

The proposed acquisition will lead to the acquisition of 100 percent shareholding of Jamii Bora by Co-operative bank.

The acquisition plans come a year after the Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA) made a Sh1.4 billion cash offer to buy out the bank.

However, the plans did not materialize after CBA settled to acquire NIC Bank. The merger between the two banks created a complementary base of over 38 million customers, making the new bank -NCBA- one of the biggest banks in East Africa.

10 years

The acquisition comes ten years after Jamii Bora, which was established in 2010, merged with City Finance Bank (CFB), a private financial services provider which, in the past, had provided services to large corporations and high-net-worth individuals.

After the merger, CFB acquired JBB and took on the name of its new acquisition.

As of December 31, 2019, Jamii Bora was ranked 38 out of 39 banks with a market share of 0.12 percent and 17 branches across the country.

The co-operative bank is Kenya’s 4th largest bank, predominantly owned by the 15-million-member Kenyan co-operative movement.

It was listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2008 and has a market share of 9.63 percent with 159 branches in Kenya and South Sudan.

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