Family Bank reveals plan to list on NSE, regional expansion

Family Bank has unveiled a plan to list on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) next year as it eyes to be a tier one financial institution by 2029.

Board Chairman Lazarus Muema also hinted on growing the institution’s tentacles beyond the Kenyan market, saying a holding company has already been formed that will drive the expansion.

="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/sports/amp/business/article/2001515035/family-bank-profit-jumps-38pc-to-sh34b-on-higher-interest-income">He said there< is a big advantage in forming a holding company particularly when it comes to going into the region.

“We are scoping beyond Kenya and to do that we will need that group holding structure,” he said.

Muema, while speaking during the release of the bank’s first quarter 2025 financial statements, said has been the dream of the institution’s founder Titus Muya to have the bank’s shares traded at the NSE.

He said the oversubscription of the bond issued in 2021 when the bank was seeking Sh4 billion gave them an idea of how the market perceives the institution.

“In fact, it was heavily oversubscribed. We got 147 per cent,” Muema said. The bank raised Sh4.4 billion against an initial target of Sh3 billion.

Additionally, a Sh14.6 billion partnership with the European Investment Bank has also empowered the bank to grow towards this trajectory.

“Our rallying call is that we would like to be a tier one bank, and that is where we still want to be,” the chairman said.

He said the new strategic plan will include investments into digitisation and impact-oriented loaning.

The bank’s boldness to go regional and list on NSE is being supported by positive results amid a dampening economic environment.

For example, the bank boasts of a non-performing loan ratio of 14.1 below the industry’s 16 per cent.

In the results, profit before tax grew 15 per cent to Sh1.5 billion in the three months to March. Loans and advances went up 10 per cent to Sh96.2 billion while deposits also improved to Sh132.2 billion, a growth of 20 per cent.

Operating expenses, however, went up 40 per cent to Sh3.1 billion, which the bank attributed largely to a consultant onboarded to put together the 2025-2029 strategic plan.

="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/enterprise/article/2001518967/eib-family-bank-to-raise-sh147bn-for-businesses-led-by-women-youth">Family Bank Chief “We believe we have lot of data and we want to make data-driven decisions going forward,” she said. "We do not want to sit somewhere and purport to know the needs of our customers." 

Compelling customer propositions, enablers and productivity and efficiency are the other tenets that will be supporting this growth.

="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ktnnews/amp/video/2000084733/-family-bank-seeks-to-raise-three-billion-shillings-to-fund-its-expansion-plan">Additionally, while< the bank seeks to grow it footprints regionally, it is banking on the country’s youthful population and diaspora remittances.

This then will inform their strategy to expand their reach locally as she noted that the institution has a robust network infrastructure of 95 branches that ranks it position five.

“Over 50 per cent of diaspora remittances come from North America. For us as a bank, we want to make sure we are doing everything it takes to tap into that corridor,” Njau said.