JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon will embark on a four-nation tour to promote development, including a visit to Kenya

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, is scheduled to visit Africa in mid-October as part of the company’s efforts to grow on the continent. This will be his first trip there in seven years, according to four people with knowledge of the situation who spoke to Reuters.

According to two of the insiders, Dimon’s itinerary for the trip next month includes stops in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Cote d’Ivoire. JPMorgan now provides commercial and investment banking services, as well as asset and wealth management, out of its locations in South Africa and Nigeria.

With operations in more than 100 countries and assets of more than $4.1 trillion, JPMorgan has made the development of overseas markets a primary area of concentration.

Dimon stated that the company may consider entering Kenya and Ghana in 2018. According to media reports, JPMorgan’s growth plans have been halted by local officials in those two countries.

Following a meeting with a top JPMorgan official in February 2023, Kenyan President William Ruto said that the bank has agreed to open a new office in Nairobi.

The exact timing of JPMorgan’s opening in these nations was not immediately apparent.

According to analysts, major international banks are trying to increase their share of corporate transactions and sovereign debt in Africa. Eric Musau, head of research at Standard Investment Bank in Nairobi, stated that the bank also wants to increase its customer base of foreign businesses operating in the continent.

According to Musau, foreign lenders are attempting to increase their income by providing wealth management services that give clients access to investments such as debt, mutual funds, and offshore equities.

In an effort to set themselves apart from the local and regional lenders that are common in retail markets, banking behemoths are now providing private banking services.

According to Francis Mwangi, CEO of Nairobi brokerage Kestrel Capital, private banking “is where the next evolution will be,” despite the fact that most people on the continent can access financial services through local and regional commercial banks.

Growth in foreign markets is a main aim for JPMorgan, which is ranked among the top five international private banks by assets under supervision, as it stated in May.

JPMorgan President Daniel Pinto told investors in May that the bank had made $2 billion in income for its commercial and investment bank by growing into 27 new locations throughout the globe over the last five years with the help of about 700 bankers.

Aliko Dangote, a Nigerian billionaire, and Tony Blair, a former British prime minister who established the Africa Governance Initiative, are among the former policymakers and multinational executives that advise JPMorgan.

To set themselves apart from local and regional rivals, major international lenders have taken different approaches for each of the sub-Saharan markets, focusing on the fastest-growing regions.

Standard Chartered has prioritized markets such as Kenya. According to the report, assets under management in Kenya increased by 25% in the previous year to Ksh185.5 billion ($1.4 billion).

The bank liquidated its subsidiaries in Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Angola, and the Gambia last year.

One dollar is equal to Ksh128.50.