BK CEO Dr. Diane Karusisi during the clients’ outreach
Bank of Kigali (BK) PLC has promised to extend technology-based products to its clients to ease their access to financial services following lessons picked from COVID-19 pandemic.
The BK Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Diane Karusisi said that the bank is embarking on understanding their financial challenges so as to find ways of transforming their lives financially in the coming years as the pandemic subsides.
BK staff have been reaching out to clients in the Western and Northern provinces in the districts of Rubavu, Musanze, Nyabihu, Burera, and Rulindo.
“We want to understand the issues our clients are facing. This will help us to plan better to extend our financial services to more Rwandans but through the use of technology as our main focus of better service delivery in the coming years,” Karusisi said.
“Our bank has many new, affordable, and friendly financial services and products of which we have made known to our clients so that they can start planning on their projects to be financed.”
Ildephonse Kambogo, the Rubavu district mayor said that the Bank of Kigali has largely contributed to the area development activities in agriculture, livestock and business financing but more can be done in key investments needed in the district.
Some of the needed investments, Kambogo said include investing in commercial business, storage, and tourism facilities on the shores of Lake Kivu to enable cross-border trade but also have a boom in tourism activities.
“For instance, this year we have to host events that will require 700 rooms which we don’t have. If we have the bank of Kigali and other investors invest in this hospitality sector, we can be in a position to host similar events,” Kambogo said.
In Musanze district- a business community and touristic destination, the BK CEO Karusisi announced plans to open another branch that will ease access to financial services.
Karusisi said that this will enable Rwandans to get quick banking services without having to make queues or spend more than an hour at the bank but also encourage clients to adapt to financial technology.
Benjamin Mutimura, the BK Chief Commercial Officer, also presented some of the new products that the bank has put in place including business development, youth, and women’s sections to ease access to financing.
“We have continued to revamp our services to make it much easier to access loans for example for business owners who want to own a house, we can buy it for them or facilitate them to own one,” Mutimura said.
One of Rwandan’s investors in the Northern province, Sina Gerald said that working with BK has changed the way of doing business for most local farmers who through the use of technology no longer have to carry money on them while traveling outside the country for business.
“It is so interesting to see how the bank has changed the way we do business, where one doesn’t have to worry a bag of money which is where the global economy is heading. For us we see the bank of Kigali as a product that represents us as a Bank Made in Rwanda,” Sina said.
The Bank of Kigali has 68 branches over 3,000 agents, 96 ATM machines countrywide with plans to add on more than 30 ATMs in the near future.
Additional reporting: Sylidio Sebuharara, Servilien Mutuyimana
