Commercial Bank of Africa was established in 1962 in
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania as a subsidiary of Swiss-based ''Société Financière pour les Pays d'Outre-Mer'' (SFOM). The SFOM consortium included
Banque Nationale de Paris,
Bank Bruxelles Lambert,
Commerz Bank and
Bank of America. Branches of the bank were established in
Nairobi and
Mombasa,
Kenya. Another branch was opened in
Kampala,
Uganda. In 1967, the
Government of Tanzania nationalized all commercial banks in the country as part of the government's nationalization of large industries in its execution of the
Arusha Declaration. This nationalization led the bank to move its headquarters to Nairobi. In 1971, the Ugandan business was sold off to
Barclays Bank of Uganda. This was due to the then prevailing political instability in the country. This marked the bank's reentry into Tanzania after the 1967 nationalization of its operations in the country. In 2007, United Bank of Africa changed its name to
Commercial Bank of Africa (Tanzania) leading to the formation of the
CBA Group. In March 2012, CBA Group initiated action to acquire a 62% stake in
Royal Bank Zimbabwe, a
Harare-based commercial bank. However, both parties failed to finalize on the deal within given regulatory time frames. On July 31, 2012, The
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe determined Royal Bank to be insolvent. Royal Bank then surrendered its banking licence and closed down. CBA Group re-entered the Ugandan market in 2014 through its wholly owned subsidiary,
Commercial Bank of Africa Uganda Limited making it the 26th commercial bank in the Uganda. In 2016, Commercial Bank of Africa Group announced plans to establish its mobile banking service
M-Shwari in
Ivory Coast in collaboration with the telecommunications conglomerate,
MTN International. In December 2016, the CBA Group acquired a Rwandan Microfinance banking licence, thereby establishing
Commercial Bank of Africa (Rwanda), also CBA Bank Rwanda. In mid-2017, negotiations for CBA Bank Rwanda to acquire
Crane Bank Rwanda were concluded, but required regulatory approval from the
National Bank of Rwanda, the
Central Bank of Kenya and the
Bank of Uganda.
Crane Bank in Uganda had failed and its assets and liabilities in Uganda had been acquired by
DFCU Bank. However, DFCU did not want to keep the Rwandan subsidiary. The deal was concluded during the first quarter of 2018 and CBA Bank Rwanda opened with three branches in
Kigali. ==Merger with NIC Group Plc==