Merchant bankers, African Banking Corporation (BancABC) have grabbed a stake in retail banking business after the central bank gave them a go ahead.
Plans are afoot for the BSE quoted bank to begin trading, increasing the number of listed commercial banks to three.
An upbeat Jitto Kurian, the BancABC Managing Director indicated that the bank has started receiving customers for its Central Business District (CBD) branch in Gaborone.
“This (approval) was granted in June,” he noted.
Meanwhile an official from Bank of Botswana (BoB) also confirmed that the bank has been given an approval to begin their commercial operations. The approval by BoB follows a banking license issuance, which was given to the BancABC last August to compete with other seven commercial banks for Botswana’s fledging financial sector with less than 2 million customers.
Already Barclays Bank announced that they top the market with about 85 000 customers.
Kurian said they would soon open their Fairgrounds branch. Last year, the parent company ABC Holdings Chief Executive Officer Douglas Munatsi said they would spend well over $ 150 million on retail expansion.
