Asia is home to the oldest still-functioning business in the
world: a construction company named Kongo Gumi.
A United Kingdom financial Service Company recently published
an interesting map that shows the oldest company in (almost) every country that
is still in business today, including Kenya. The oldest company on the list,
Kongō Gumi in Japan, has been operating since 578 AD.
In Kenya KCB was named as the oldest company still in
operation having been established in 1896, however on its website the bank says
it first opened an office in the country under the name National Bank of India
in 1904. It later merged with Grindlays bank. After independence, the government
of Kenya acquired 100% ownership of the bank and renamed it Kenya Commercial
Bank in 1970. Today KCB Bank Group has the highest number of branches across
East Africa, with over 250 branches.
Asia is home to the oldest still-functioning business in the
world: a construction company named Kongo Gumi. In 578 Buddhism was on the rise
in Japan; but the Japanese had no experience in building temples. The royal
family invited a renowned Korean temple builder, Shigemitsu Kongo, to construct
the country’s first government temple. Shigemitsu stayed to maintain the
building and passed his unprecedented knowledge of the art down the line, so
that 14 centuries later temple-building still accounted for 80% of the Kongo
Gumi’s US$60m business.
Elsewhere in Africa a huge continent needs a solid postal
service, so it’s no surprise that half of the top 10 oldest businesses in
Africa are postal companies. Oldest of them all is Mauritius Post, opening all
the way back in 1772, when Mauritius was still under French rule. The new
service started small with eight messengers and rural post offices were
established in 1790. Fast forward to 1814 and Namibia also gets its own postal
service. NamPost are still managing the post over 200 years later.
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