CENTRAL BANK OF KENYA
Remarks by
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DTB Centre, Mombasa Road, Nairobi
January 16, 2014

PPrriinnccee RRaahhiimm AAggaa KKhhaann;;
PPrriinncceessss SSaallwwaa AAggaa KKhhaann;;
Mr. Abdul Samji, Chairman, Diamond Trust Bank Kenya
Ltd;
Mrs. Nasim Devji, Managing Director, Diamond Trust Bank
Kenya Ltd;
Board Members, Management and Staff of Diamond Trust
Bank Kenya Ltd;
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is my honour and pleasure to join you this morning to
officially open the DTB Centre. Before making my remarks,
let me take this opportunity to thank the Directors and the
Management of Diamond Trust Bank Kenya Limited for
inviting me to this auspicious event.
We are honoured to have the presence of Prince Rahim Aga
Khan and Princess Salwa Aga Khan in our country. Let me
at the outset warmly welcome them to Kenya and wish them
an enjoyable stay in the country.
Ladies and Gentlemen: DTB has operated in East Africa for
over 65 years starting off as a small financial institution in
Mombasa. The bank has grown its branch network in Kenya

by nearly ten-fold to 47 as we stand. DTB Group has a
presence in Tanzania, Uganda and lately Burundi and in
total, the branch network has expanded from 11 branches in
2005 to 98 in December 2013. I am also informed that the
group intends to explore other frontier economies in Eastern
& Southern Africa including Rwanda, Madagascar,
Mozambique, DRC and South Sudan. I congratulate the
Board and Management for these achievements and the
ambitious plans.
Ladies and Gentlemen: The DTB has invested over USD30
million in acquiring the DTB Centre and fitting out its
corporate head office and a further USD3 million in
building a state-of-the-art Tier-III Data Centre which has
resilience and additional capacity built-in for key data
center services for its operations in East Africa as well as for
the expansion into Sub-Saharan Africa. This investment will
therefore enable DTB support Kenya’s Vision 2030
aspirations of making Nairobi the regional hub for financial
services. The Government and the Central Bank are
supportive of these efforts by creating an enabling

environment through policy initiatives, new institutions and
provision of requisite infrastructure.
Ladies and Gentlemen: I note with appreciation that
Diamond Trust Bank is one of the pioneering Kenyan banks
to embrace regionalisation of their operations. The bank’s
already established regional operations place it on a
trajectory of exponential growth given the progress at which
the East African Community integration is advancing. The
Central Bank of Kenya together with the other EAC Central
Banks are at an advanced stage to facilitate efficient
operations across the expanded market for banking sector
players. A recent case in point is the operationalization of
the East African Payment System (EAPS) in Kenya, Uganda
and Tanzania. The EAPS will also be extended to Rwanda
and Burundi to facilitate trade and investment across the
East African Region.
The EAC Central Banks are also at an advanced stage of
harmonising their supervisory rules, platforms and practices.
This will ensure that regional financial players operate
seamlessly without being subjected to unnecessary
duplications and compliance costs. As part of this process, the
Central Bank of Kenya has spearheaded the establishment of
supervisory colleges for Kenyan banks with regional
footprints. The colleges provide a framework for CBK as home
supervisor and the East African Central Banks as host

supervisors to co-ordinate the supervision of regional banks
and also exchange information. So far three colleges
including one for Diamond Trust Bank have been
established. These initiatives will indeed foster banking
sector stability across the region.
Ladies and Gentlemen: With a fully integrated regional
financial system, centralization of selected operations to
enjoy economies of scale will no longer be a route travelled
by a few. With the state-of-the-art Diamond Trust Bank
Centre, your bank will be among the pioneers in exploiting
the benefits of centralization of operations and the frontier of
providing your customers with state of the art financial
services. I assure you that the Central Bank of Kenya is open
to innovative ideas to enhance efficiency, integrity and access
of the formal financial services. That is why Diamond Trust
Bank has been able to thrive and to support SME’s across the
EAC.
Ladies and Gentlemen, with these few remarks, it is now my
honor and pleasure to declare the Diamond Trust Bank
Centre officially opened.
Thank You and God bless you all