Equity Bank’s Internationalization: Building an African Multinational

Abstract

Equity Bank, a leading Kenyan Bank and one of the most established financial institutions in Africa has ambitiously set out to achieve its long-term objective of championing the socio-economic empowerment of Africans by extending its operations to other African countries. Its initial internationalization trajectory has taken it to the major East African countries, with subsidiaries in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Sudan. Aiming to expand beyond East Africa, the bank has announced an ambitious plan to enter Ethiopia, Burundi, DR Congo, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria. The bank’s plan to enter Nigeria, the most populous and largest economy in Africa, is by far the most complex and ambitious in its rapid international expansion. Although the Nigerian banking space is quite concentrated, with well-capitalized banks that have well-developed product portfolios that meet the banking needs of Nigerian corporates, opportunities still exist at the middle and bottom of the pyramid. The case examines the situation in 2014, when Equity had to examine what options would ensure that its entry into Nigeria would be successful and sustainable.

Dr Chris Ogbechie and Nkemdilim Iheanachor prepared this as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation.