Rawbank


Rawbank is a commercial bank of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The bank was created on May 2-2002, with 10 employees. As of March 2020 the CEO of the bank is Mustafa Rawji and the Chairman of the bank is Mazhar Rawji. Rawbank is the largest bank operating in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a balance sheet of $2.1 billion at financial year-end 2019. The bank had a staff of more than 1,800, as at 31 December 2019.

History

was launched in 2002 by Rawholding s.a., the Holding that is commonly called Rawji Group, owned by The Rawji brothers, namely Mushtaque, Mazhar, Aslam and Murtaza. The history of the Rawji group begins at the beginning of the 20th century, when Merali Rawji settled in Kindu, then in Kalemie and later in Kisangani, in the eastern part of what was then Belgian Congo. The family made money in the coffee and cocoa trading business. In 1966, it acquired Beltexco, a distributor of FMCG consumer goods, a move that will turn them from successful entrepreneurs to a wealthy family.
The directors of this group of companies are descendants of the founder. They grew up in Africa, but went to Europe to complete their studies. In the late 1990s, the war rocked the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but the Rawji continued their business activities. They set up in the capital, Kinshasa, and continued to diversify their portfolio of activities, adding up Prodimpex, a soap and cosmetics manufacturing company, Marsavco, a Unilever subsidiary in DRC, and others. Rawholding S.A. registered in Luxemburg, is a diversified group of companies Holding invested in banking, cosmetics, real estate, and international trade.

Operations

is a full-service financial institution offering fully fledged retail, commercial and corporate banking services. It is a member of the SWIFT interbank network. Rawbank was started by five brothers. The conglomerate that owns the bank is called Groupe Rawji, one of DR Congo's leading conglomerates, jointly owned by brothers: Mazhar Rawji Mushtaque Rawji Aslam Rawji and Murtaza Rawji.
, Rawbank was the largest commercial bank in DR Congo, with 24 percent of banking assets in the country and a customer base of nearly of 300,000 accounts. Rawbank was the first financial house in DR Congo to offer mortgages to the public in 2015.
, sixty percent of Rawbank's customers maintained retail accounts. The introduction of mobile money accounts has enabled the bank to attract clients in remote locations, as has the introduction internet banking. The bank is growing its clientele by focusing on the un-banked population young people small to medium-sized businesses and businesses owned by women.

Awards

As at the end of 2019 Rawbank operated 99 points of contact, across the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Partnerships

Rawbank has tied up strategic partnerships with international and panafrican financial institutions in order to support its activities and vision. In 2019, these partnerships have brought around 143 million USD. The partner institutions are: