Equity Group shareholders have accepted the opening of a Representative Office within the United Arab Emirates (UAE), making Equity the primary Kenyan financial institution to arrange operations within the Middle East.
The group’s board on Wednesday, June 25, additionally accepted all essential actions to ascertain the workplace in UAE together with executing and submitting required paperwork and agreements, paying related charges and bills, and establishing the mandatory constructions, industrial preparations, and different associated measures to help the workplace’s operations.
According to the financial institution, the Dubai hub will facilitate enterprise, commerce and funding alternatives between East and Central Africa, the UAE, and the broader Middle East, India, Central and South Asia areas.
The consultant workplace may even allow Equity Bank to fund Kenyan and East African companies and traders with enterprise pursuits within the Emirates and even for international merchants, increasing its market base and buyer portfolio.
“The institution of a consultant workplace within the UAE marks a strategic step in deepening regional and international connectivity. With our shareholders’ continued belief, we’re assured in our skill to drive significant transformation, sustainable improvement, and long-term worth creation throughout the continent,” mentioned Equity Group Chairman Isaac Macharia.
Equity Group to Become First Kenyan Bank to Open Branch in UAE
The transfer may even mark Equity’s first enterprise outdoors Africa and positions the lender to faucet into quick‑rising corridors in agribusiness, infrastructure, and power.
Currently, Equity has a consultant workplace in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The financial institution must await approval from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and the Emirati regulator.
On his half, Equity Group CEO James Mwangi, mentioned the UAE workplace is a strategic bridge that hyperlinks Africa’s entrepreneurial power with international capital.
“Our prospects will achieve entry to new markets. At the identical time, Gulf traders will take pleasure in a direct line into Africa’s quickest‑rising area,” he mentioned.
With regulatory approvals pending in each jurisdictions, Equity expects the UAE workplace to be operational in early 2026.
The lender says the hub will speed up the financial institution’s imaginative and prescient of changing into Africa’s “one-stop monetary providers platform,” connecting entrepreneurs, traders and improvement companions throughout continents.
Why Dubai Is Key to Equity Group’s Next Growth Phase
Equity Group’s determination to arrange an workplace in Dubai is strategic for a number of key causes.
First, it’s going to improve commerce facilitation by providing on-site help for letters of credit score and supply-chain finance, serving to to cut back delays in fee and settlement processes for companies.
Secondly, with tens of millions of East Africans residing and dealing within the Gulf area, the workplace will strengthen diaspora banking by making remittance and cell cash providers sooner and extra accessible.
Being near main sovereign wealth funds and monetary establishments within the UAE may even place Equity at a vantage level to draw long-term capital for infrastructure and inexperienced funding tasks throughout Africa.
The lender’s shareholders additionally accepted the proposed dividend of Ksh4.25 per share, paving the best way for the fee of Ksh16 billion in dividends by the top of June.
