Kenyan Commercial Bank Shuts Down In Gbudue

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Elisabeth Janaina

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Jul 6, 2017, 4:47:33 AM7/6/17

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Kenyan Commercial Bank Shuts Down In Gbudue

KCB clients in Gbudue State have expressed worries after closure of the bank in the region last Friday.

05 July 2017 By James Deng Dimo WAU, 05 July 2017 [Gurtong] –

The bank however said that those who have deposited money in the bank should be able to access their money in the remaining open branches in Juba and Wau.

Gama Etura who is a businessman in the State however said that it will be a loss on their side as they will hve to incur the cost of travelling to access their money.“We need KCB to at least to reverse its decision for just two months to allow its clients in Yambio get their money,” he said. “If we the business people are finding this a big problem especially with transport what about the civil servants who are receiving low pays from the government when they were paid through this bank,” he said.

KCB is the second regional bank to close its branch office in Gbudue State after Equity Bank.KCB was one of the first foreign banks to move into South Sudan more than a decade ago, lured by one of sub-Saharan Africa’s lowest banking penetration rates and its petro-dollars.

Its then-chief executive Martin Oduor-Otieno slept in a tent and opened the first branch in a shop just big enough to fit a partition and a grill.

But a three-year civil war has curbed oil production, sent the economy into a tail-spin and spurred runaway inflation.KCB before closing some branches with Yambio on Friday, its Chief Executive Martin Oduor Otieno earlier said the banks lost 2.8 billion South Sudanese pounds in 2016. He declined to specify the amount in dollars since the conflict erupted in the country three years ago.

The South Sudanese pound traded at 16 to the dollar on the black market on Friday, compared with 13 in February.The bank has operated in South Sudan since 2006.Violence forced the bank to shut three branches in January 2014, a month after the war broke out. But now it is a perilous shortage of dollars and hyperinflation that topped 800 percent last year that is hampering operations.