Choice Microfinance Bank ups quest for more capital

photo:courtesy

Choice Microfinance Bank wants to increase its capital position and seek a new license to transition from a community-based institution to a national one.

The microfinancier, which was licensed by Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) two years ago, said at the weekend its shareholders were in the process of raising fresh capital that will see it get a licence to expand beyond Rongai, Kajiado County.

According to the bank’s chairman Ben Kamiri, the investors have agreed to pool resources together to convert the microfinance lender into a national outfit by the end of the year.

DIASPORA SHAREHOLDERS

“We have done a great deal of getting capital and we are almost there. Investors have already brought in about 75 per cent of the money,” Mr Kamiri told The Standard during the bank’s second anniversary celebrations in Rongai.

The microfinancier’s majority shareholders are Kenyans in the Diaspora,

The bank was licensed by CBK on June 2015 and started operations on July 1 upon getting the minimum Sh20 million required for a community-based microfinance bank.

 CBK regulations require a capital of Sh60 million for a microfinance to become national.