Cairo bank rebrands for growth

BANKING|REBRANDING|CAIRO BANK

Cairo International has Bank rebranded in order to tap into the growing common markets for eastern and southern Africa (COMESA), officials have said.

The rebrand gives it a new identity from Cairo International bank to Cairo Bank Uganda Limited. 

The bank remains a fully owned subsidiary by Banque Du Caire (BDC), one of the largest banks in Egypt.

For the last three years, the bank has not posted any profits for its shareholders. For instance, the bank reported a loss of sh2.8b in 2019 and shsh3.4b in 2018.

Speaking during the unveiling of the executive branch at Lotis tower in Kampala last month, Sylvia Jagwe Owachi, the Executive Director Cairo Bank Uganda Limited, said the bank underwent a comprehensive restructuring process in 2019 with an eye to boosting operational efficiency and positioning it to be able to sustainably grow.

 "Our journey started in 2019, with a lot of restructuring, and the co-bank system changed because we were positioning the bank for growth in that year.

 Our loans grew by 85% and our deposits by 50%, now 2020 is our year of transformation and the journey has begun, first with the change in the name, change of our logo, colour, people have changed and our strategic intent is to be the preferred SME bank in Uganda," she said.

Owachi added that the reason they preferred SMEs is that they employ a number of people, 2.5m who account for 90% of the private sector credit and 20% of the GDP and they are spread across different sectors.

She added that they intend to come in with the new brand promise, 'growing with you,' explaining that they want to grow and develop with their customers.

Ahmad Nader Maher, Managing Director, Cairo Bank Uganda Limited said they have acquired the latest banking system, which will allow them introduce new products on the market that will give efficient financial services to clients keeping in mind the controls that should keep in the transaction financial services.

"Our new logo is a symbol of many doors, the doors that we are going to open with our customers that we can roll together. Our new colour, orange, is a combination of energy, red and yellow meaning happiness," he said.

Maher also said they are leveraging on the strength of their shareholders and their long existing in Uganda during this period of Corona pandemic.

"We are making sure that we keep our customers and our staff safe by following the SOPs of measuring body temperatures, keeping social distancing so that we can give our customers a banking experience and a safe one," he added.

The bank's Chief Finance Officer, David Kikulwe, noted that what they intend to do in the medium term is creating an incubation project to SMEs where by upskilling and making them better so that there is financial management such as record keeping, paying taxes, doing basics and focus on the customers to develop them and sustainably grow as a bank.

"We have plans in the medium term in 2021/2022 to be able to roll out incubation projects by SMEs and be able to support them to grow with us,´Kikulwe said.