The new hiring comes after the lender last December acquired a controlling stake of 85 percent at the bank.

The TMB acquisition came after it got the greenlight in Kenya, the DRC and the COMESA Competition Commission. TMB’s bank branch network of 109 branches is supported by a substantial agency banking network, along with a representative office in Belgium.

In the DRC, the bank commands an 11 percent market share as measured by total assets and is home to more than one in five bank accounts in the country. The bank has also added 720 employees in Kenya, as well as 52 in Rwanda and 20 in South Sudan.

While Tanzania’s unit hired 10, Uganda attracted six  and Burundi hired three. Rising numbers of workers across the board pushed the group’s staff cost by 22.4 percent to Sh30.26 billion.

In the full year ending December 2022, KCB Group posted a Sh40.8 billion profit after tax on higher funded and non-funded income streams.

Similarly, the profit before tax contribution of other subsidiaries excluding KCB Bank Kenya increased to 17.0 percent (up from 13.9 percent in 2021) attributed to higher income.