The story
The origins of the bank can be traced back to 1975, when the first Banque Populaire du Rwanda was formed in the settlement of Nkamba, in the city of Kibungo, Eastern Province. Over the next ten years, many other similar banks were founded around the country. In 1986, the various autonomous Banques Populaires formed an umbrella called the Union des Banques Populaires du Rwanda (UBPR). UBPR was operated as a cooperative bank.
In January 2008, following 33 years of experience in the Rwandan financial sector, UBPR was transformed from a cooperative bank into a commercial bank: Banque Populaire du Rwanda S.A. In June 2008, Rabobank, the Dutch cooperative banking conglomerate, acquired 35 percent of the shares in BPR. In July 2012, Visa Inc. certified the bank to issue visa-branded debit and credit cards.
In January 2016, Atlas Mara completed its acquisition of a controlling stake of BPR after acquiring shares from existing shareholders and merging the bank with the commercial banking business that was spun off Rwanda Development Bank.
In 2021, KCB Group successfully completed the acquisition of Banque Populaire du Rwanda Plc (BPR) from Atlas Mara Mauritius Limited and Arise B.V. In 2022, in line with its strategy for expansion and enhanced financial inclusion across the region, KCB Group successfully amalgamated Banque Populaire du Rwanda and KCB Bank Rwanda Plc to form BPR Bank Rwanda Plc. The success of this merger makes BPR Bank Rwanda Plc the second largest bank in the Rwanda banking sector. It is reported that KCB Group spent about KSh:6.3 billion (approx. US$55 million) in the acquisition process.
From Wikipedia’s article on BPR Bank Rwanda, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3