American banking conglomerate JPMorgan Chase, one of the world’s largest banks, has finally secured a green light to open a representative office in Kenya, nearly 12 years after first disclosing the plans.

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) on Monday announced that the US banking giant can start Kenya operations as it seeks a wide presence in Africa.

The nod comes ahead of an expected visit by the bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon, who is expected to visit Kenya in coming days as part of a trip to four African countries in efforts to advance the lender’s footprint on the continent.

This brings the total number of international banks with representative offices in Kenya to 10, heating up competition in the space that has lenders drawn from countries such as the Netherlands, France, China, India, Pakistan, Egypt, South Africa and Mauritius.

“The JPMorgan Chase Bank representative office Kenya will contribute to the diversity of Kenya’s financial sector and catalyse trade and investments,” CBK said.

“Additionally, the authorisation of the Representative Office affirms Kenya’s standing as a premier financial services hub.”

A representative office helps foreign banks to market their products and services in the country and act as a liaison between their parent firm and local clients, but are prohibited from undertaking primary banking business such as lending and deposit-taking.

Last year, the deals closed by foreign financiers with representative offices in Kenya rose 13 percent to hit Sh413.3 billion, up from Sh365.6 billion in 2022, says the CBK.

These deals included corporate, trade, property, specialised financing, syndicated and project financing, among others.

Ten foreign banks have representative offices in Nairobi, including Bank of China, Bank of Kigali, South Africa’s First Rand Bank, Cooperative Rabobank of Mauritius, Nedbank and French lender Societe Generale.