Foreign banks battle for control of the lucrative retail banking industry in East Africa

The retail sector in East Africa has been branded the "new frontier for money-making" by lenders trying to increase revenues and defend market share, and as a result, foreign banks have been drawn into the battle for industry control.Foreign multinational banking behemoths that have traditionally thrived on doing business with large firms and high-net-worth individuals are gradually shifting their business models to assist previously overlooked and ignored small businesses and individual consumers. Kenya's Kenya Commercial Bank and Equity Bank saw their total value in this market expand to about Ksh1 trillion ($7.3 billion) due to growing client bases and loan books, as reported by The East African, an East African news source.'High volume, poor margin' activities aimed at the low-income portion of the population are the strategy that has increased non-funded earnings for local banks.