Equity Bank

Equity BCDC is a commercial bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo serving individuals, salaried employees, informal sector workers, SMEs, corporates, and institutions with retail and business banking services. It is a subsidiary of Equity Group Holdings, a Kenya-headquartered banking group also operating as Equity Bank in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and South Sudan, with a representative office in Ethiopia.

Key capabilities include:

• Accounts and banking services: tools to open an account, manage day-to-day banking, and access savings products such as an Employee Salary Account and the inclusive Libanga account for informal sector workers
• Digital banking and self-service: EquityBCDC Online for retail customers and Equity Online for Business for businesses and institutions
• Payments and online checkout: Pay/Send Money services, plus Cybersource online payments in partnership with Visa
• Borrowing and credit: instalment loans for working capital or business assets, education-focused credit such as Crédit Kelasi Plus, and salary-advance credit via digital channels

Available via Web, USSD (*420#), and Telegram, with a nationwide network of branches, ATMs, and agents across the DRC.

Equity BCDC traces back to Banque Commerciale du Congo, founded in 1909 as one of the DRC's oldest banks; Equity Group acquired a majority stake from the Forrest family in 2019-2020 and merged it with Equity Bank Congo. It is now the second-largest bank in the DRC by balance sheet, with roughly $2.5 billion in assets, 74 branches, 214 ATMs, and about 3,055 agents serving close to one million customers.

Group-wide, Equity Group Holdings (founded 1984, listed on the Nairobi and Uganda securities exchanges) reports total assets of roughly $13.9 billion and more than 21.6 million customers across its network.