Dar es Salaam — Microlender Blue Financial Services has frozen further investment into strife-torn Kenya after one of its managers was killed last week in the post-election violence that has gripped the country, CEO Dave van Niekerk said yesterday.

Blue becomes the first South African company to be affected by the violence that has left nearly 1000 people dead. The company has 13 branches in Kenya, where it has invested R11m over the past few months.

A number of South African companies, including Standard Bank -- the largest lender in Africa by assets -- operate in Kenya. It was not immediately clear how the violence was affecting them.

"We are not committing any further investment in Kenya until the situation normalises. We have enough capital in Kenya to ensure that we sustain our existing operations there," said Van Niekerk.

Blue, which operates in 10 African countries, would divert the planned investment estimated at more than R15m to other countries in the region. The company was planning to expand its operations in neighbouring Tanzania from 11 branches to 17 by the end of this year, boosting its loan book to R80m.

Blue had received regulatory approvals to expand its operations into Cameroon and Rwanda within the next three months.

"We have received approval from the South African Reserve Bank to enter these countries but we are awaiting the go-ahead from the central banks of the two countries. We expect this to happen within the next three months," he said.

Blue, with a loan book of R400m, was considering expanding its operations in Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo and was also considering possible acquisitions in southern Africa to boost its revenue.

Van Niekerk said Blue would also dual list in Zambia and Botswana by April to give the local population an opportunity to acquire its shares.

Blue, listed on the JSE's AltX board, hopes to have a million customers in Africa this year.