Kenyan banks are competing against lenders from Gulf nations seeking licenses to operate in Somalia as the strife-torn country opens up the industry to international companies for the first time in almost half a century.
Somalia’s central bank has held talks with KCB Group Ltd., the owner of Kenya’s largest bank, and Nairobi-based Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd., Governor Bashir Issa Ali said, without identifying any banks from the Gulf.
“They are expressing an interest to gain a foothold in Somalia,” he said in an interview in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi last week. “Banking is one of the most profitable sectors in the country.”
The administration of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud is seeking to attract investors to rebuild the Horn of African nation after more than two decades of civil war as the army, supported by African Union peacekeepers, pushes al-Qaeda-linked militants out of urban areas. While its institutions have largely collapsed, the International Monetary Fund predicts that government reforms and donor funds will help the economy expand about 3.7 percent through 2017.