JP Morgan, America’s largest bank and a world leader in the financial sector, now has a regional office in Nairobi, Kenya.
According to Techcabal, the move speaks to Africa’s determination to become part of JP Morgan. JP Morgan now boasts offices in Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa. JP Morgan’s history in Nigeria and Egypt dates back to 1960 and 1979, respectively, while the bank recently debuted in South Africa, Techcabal reports.
The new JP Morgan will oversee East African businesses from the Nairobi regional office.
According to a 2018 interview with Jamie Dimon, the bank’s CEO, he said JP Morgan had hired a special team of bankers to help expand the bank’s relationships in Africa, especially in Kenya, and Ghana.
Dimon also expressed the bank’s interest in expanding its services and targeting large multinationals who are not well-served by local investment banking firms due to a lack of expertise in handling large transactions.
“We’ve added corporate bankers in countries overseas. We stopped because of the crisis and regulatory issues,” Dimon said. “We go there, we serve the country, we serve their universities, power plants.”
William Ruto, Kenya’s president, praised the new move as a “vote for Kenya’s emerging success in the global marketplace.” Techcabal reported that Ruto also met with JP Morgan’s vice-chairman and global head of public sector group, Daniel Zelikow. The two men discussed the need for development financing to be responsive to climate change.
JP Morgan, headquartered in New York, has locations in 100 countries around the world. It has a London EMEA headquarter and has expressed a commitment to help drive sustainable economic growth in the region, Techcabal reported. Its presence in East Africa is expected to create job opportunities, help build sustainable local business, and attract more foreign investment to the country, the outlet added.
