NAIROBI (Reuters) – The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) will lift a decade-long moratorium on licensing new commercial banks on July 1, it said on Wednesday.
The prohibition was imposed in 2015 against a backdrop of governance, risk management and operational challenges, the central bank said in a statement.
“Since then, significant strides have been made in strengthening the legal and regulatory framework for Kenya’s banking sector,” the CBK said.
A tenfold increase in the minimum core capital requirements for commercial banks to 10 billion Kenyan shillings ($77 million), which was introduced last December, will further strengthen the sector, the bank said.
($1 = 129.3500 Kenyan shillings)
(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Writing by Hereward Holland)
