Kampala, Uganda — A new indigenous Ugandan commercial bank, Global Trust Bank, plans to expand into the Rwanda and Burundi markets, its recently appointed CEO, Richard Byarugaba has said.

Byarugaba, a former Managing Director of Nile Bank and later the Chief Operations Officer at Barclays Bank, intimated to EABW at his office last week that Global Trust Bank will expand cautiously as a regional player with world class practices.

Global Trust Bank acquired Commercial Micro Finance (CMF) in July last year and began full operations on November 7, 2008.

The bank is owned by the Industrial and General Insurance (IGI) Plc of Nigeria and the National Insurance Corporation of Uganda (NIC).

CMF, a second tier savings and fixed deposit taking institution, was bought by IGI which is also a major shareholder in Rwanda's major insurance company SONARWA, to start up Global Trust Bank.

According to Byarugaba, CMF, which was a quasi-micro-finance providing money transfers, micro-loans and a savings and fixed deposit taking institution was the best launch pad for Global Trust Bank.

"As Global Trust Bank, we inherited eight branches and six agencies spread in central, eastern and northern Uganda after being granted our licence early last year. We actually acquired CMF in July 2008 and we opened our Global Trust Bank Branches to the public in November 2008. Much as we are not in a rush to open branches all over, our intention is to serve the East African market. And here, we are looking at operating branches in Southern Sudan, Rwanda and Burundi," Byarugaba said.

Global Trust Bank is the first fully-fledged commercial bank under IGI Plc. IGI is involved in oil and gas trading, insurance, savings and mortgage banking.