Bank of Kigali (BK) is not pulling any punches of late. It started a couple of months ago when celebrating its 50th anniversary. It made the wishes of some of its customers come true as a show of appreciation. But before that, it completely overhauled itself. It morphed into several entities in various branches; on top of its normal banking business, BK General Insurance and BK TecHouse were born and BK Group PLC as the holding company. It seems it has another baby under its sleeves; BK capital though not much is known about it in the public sphere. Now it is dreaming even bigger; it has chosen to join the big boys by cross listing on the Nairobi Stock Exchange, the first Rwanda company to take the leap. It hopes to tap into new capital from the much larger Kenyan body which has daily trade in excess of $7 million compared to the less than $20,000 in the young Rwanda Stock Exchange (RSE). Rwandan companies, especially those listed on the local exchange need to seriously ask themselves; why are half of the eight listed companies on the RSE Kenyan entities? What have they found attractive in such a young market? The issue is that no money is too little. The little capital they will gain in Kigali will add on to what they have. Rwandan companies should be thinking along those lines. They should dare outside their borders, get out of their comfort zones and see what the world has to offer. Some could be cautious and are waiting to see whether BK will not get its fingers burnt, but they should take a leap of faith. It is time they got to taste the world of international finance. BK Group PLC was officially created as the holding company for Bank of Kigali, BK General Insurance, BK TecHouse and the soon to be launched BK Capital…this explains.
