From Abubakar Yunusa
Nigerian fintech Interswitch is in discussions with Kenya’s Equity Bank about following the lender into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), managing director Mitchell Elegbe tells The Africa Report.
Discussions about following the bank into the DRC are at an “early stage”, Elegbe says.
Equity Bank operates in the DRC as Equity BCDC, the country’s second-largest bank by assets. The bank and Interswitch in June announced a partnership that will give Equity access to banking services at some 650 Interswitch-enabled ATMs in Uganda.
Equity Group Holdings CEO James Mwangi has made expansion into DRC a central part of his growth strategy. Economic growth in the DRC is forecast to remain above the sub-Saharan Africa average, driven by the extractives sector and improved utilisation of other natural resources.
The African Development Bank says that real GDP is set to grow 8% in 2023 and 7.2% in 2024, driven by extractives, expected to post growth of at least 12% between 2023 and 2024.
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