Customers of the First Community Bank (FCB) have been unable to make withdrawals exceeding Sh10,000. The bank issued a statement stating that they had limited transactions due to panic withdrawals in its various branches. FCB defended the decision saying that the withdrawal restrictions are meant to maintain stability in the short and long term. In the recent past, there have been reports that the bank is going under despite it being among the top tier banks in Kenya.
It ranks number 27 among Kenya’s 39 banks and had Ksh 22.9 billion in deposits as of June this year. The lender made a Ksh 602 million profit before tax in 2021 and has an asset base of Ksh 26.2 billion. However, Ksh 18.6 billion or 70 percent of the assets are locked in loans meaning that if the panic withdrawals continue and every client withdraws their money, the bank will easily collapse.
In this article, WoK unveils the faces behind the bank who include renowned lawyers Ahmednasir Abdullahi and Abdikadir Mohammed.
Faces Behind First Community Bank
The idea of setting up a Shariah complaint bank was mooted by Senior Counsel Ahmednassir Abdullahi and lawyer Abdikadir Mohamed. As a requirement of setting up a financial institution, they needed to raise at least Ksh 1 billion and so the duo talked to a number of investors who pulled resources together to hit the milestone. FCB is currently made up of 29 shareholders. They include the former Chase Bank boss Zafrullah Khan who owns 135,059 shares equating to a 2.7 percent stake making him the sixth largest shareholder according to the documents from the Business Registration Service seen by Daily Nation.
The largest Shareholder is Hussein Ali Salad through his company Opportunity Logistics Services Limited which owns 811,000 shares equating to a 16.5 percent stake. Ameir Munif Abdallah Nadhi and Said Edha Abdallah Nadhi are the joint second largest shareholders each having 805,000 shares. Senior Counsel Ahmednassir Abdullahi owns 325,614 shares while lawyer Abdikadir Mohamed owns 75,000 shares. Mohammed Hassan Ebrahim Varvani who serves as the board chairman owns 153,827 shares.
Other shareholders
The documents also listed other shareholders including Abbabakhar Mohammed Abba with 95,000 shares, Omar Shariff Mohammed-62,500 shares, Ifyet Mohammed Hassan Varvani -89,733 shares, Yasin Jama Ismail-37,500 shares, Yusuf Abdi Adan-35,625, Mansoor Mohamed Hassan-89,733, Yasmin Mohammed Hassanali-89,733, Ali Yasin Farah-186,259, Bishar Abdirahman Hussein-30,000, Yusuf Ali Juma-186,259, Yusuf Ahmed Dahir-186,260, Mohamed Nasir Abdi-26,250 and Dahir Ismael-186,259.
Other shareholders are Shaffi Mohammed Hussein Bacheleni-25,000 shares, Abdulatif Esajee Kaderbhai-35,893 shares, Hassanali Kamal Mithwani-35,895 shares, Ibrahim Haji Warfa-63,829 shares, Amina Mohamed-89,733 shares, Harunani Suleiman Abdulshakur -73,808 shares, Ahmed Mohamed Bachelani -25,000 and Abdulhamid Mohamed Aboo- 107,681 shares.
 have been unable to make withdrawals exceeding Sh10,000. The bank){kind=link}