[2] Commercial Bank of Africa was established in 1962 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania as a subsidiary of Swiss-based Société Financière pour les Pays d'Outre-Mer (SFOM).

Between 1984 and 1991, BOA re-organised CBA, developing and installing Bank of America's global systems and disciplines before selling its majority shares to local Kenyan investors.

Since then, CBA became a wholly owned Kenyan bank recognised for operational efficiency and quality service delivery.

At that time First American owned a subsidiary in Tanzania called United Bank of Africa.

[8] CBA Group re-entered the Ugandan market in 2014 through its wholly owned subsidiary, Commercial Bank of Africa Uganda Limited[9] making it the 26th commercial bank in the Uganda.

[13] The deal was concluded during the first quarter of 2018 and CBA Bank Rwanda opened with three branches in Kigali.

[17][18] As of 18 May 2019[update], the merged group was still operating two sets of banks in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania but was in the process of seeking regulatory approval to merge these businesses so that they can have one bank in each country and a group rebranding.