Launched in 1992, Euromoney Awards for Excellence are one of the most prestigious and respected awards in global banking, rewarding financial institutions for their achievements, innovations and performance over the last 12 months.

A team of experts analyses profitability, the ability to demonstrate growth, relative outperformance compared with peers and the ability to adapt to changing market conditions.

Despite challenging conditions brought about by COVID-19 pandemic, Bank of Kigali Plc, Rwanda’s largest commercial bank retains about a third of the Rwandan banking market. The bank’s deposits and loan book grew above the market average in 2020, serving 356,299 retail customers and 26,054 corporate clients.

Among others, Bank of Kigali reported a net profit of Rwf38.4 billion (US $39.3 million) in 2020, despite a high cost of risk.

The bank’s digital offering is also ascendant. Its IKOFI mobile wallet, initially focused on agriculture, has registered over 1,800 agro-dealers/agents and over 258,000 farmers by the end of 2020.

To support the economic recovery after the unprecedented conditions brought by the pandemic, Bank of Kigali assisted its customers through different initiatives. A loan relief product was rolled out to support the bank’s retail customers to deal with effects arising from the pandemic’s outbreak. At the same time, a grace period was provided to the bank’s borrowing customers including SME and corporate customers.

In 2020, Bank of Kigali launched Zamuka Mugore, a product designed for women in business that provides affordable loans and competitive interest rates. In its effort to increase protection of the bank’s information assets against threats, BK was also awarded the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 standard for Information Security Management System (ISMS) as a sign of compliance to international standards.

To give back to the community, Bank of Kigali held in 2020 its 4th cohort of the BK Urumuri Initiative, an annual entrepreneurship competition which aims at supporting small and medium enterprises to access interest-free loans and intensive business training. So far, more than 100 businesses have completed the program, and have received more than 100 million Frw with 0% interest loans from Bank of Kigali.

Commenting on the award nomination; the CEO of Bank of Kigali, Dr. Diane Karusisi observed that the award reflects he bank’s commitment to enrich customers’ experience and contribution to the financial ecosystem.

“At Bank of Kigali, we work tirelessly to meet our customers’ expectations. We are delighted to have received the Best Bank in Rwanda award by Euromoney which evidences our commitment to maintain top notch services,” said Dr. Diane Karusisi.

This year, Euromoney received a record number of submissions from banks in the regional and country awards programme that covers more than 50 regional awards and best bank awards in 100 countries.