Co-operative Bank of Kenya (Co-op Bank) has become the second most valuable lender amongst the 11 banks whose shares are publicly traded on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), in part due to government-government (G-2-G) fuel import deals, The Standard reports.

Co-Op Bank, which in recent months has won key government deals, has seen its value at the bourse rise to KES69.2bn ($466mn) at the close of trade last week. The bank’s shares traded at KES 11.80 ($0.07) per unit.

The lender now ranks behind only Equity Bank in value, a development that comes amidst a mass exodus of foreign investors at the bourse. Equity’s value stands at KES134.6bn ($907.1mn).

It has also surpassed KCB Bank, the East African country’s largest lender by assets, whose value currently stands at KES67bn ($451.4mn) due to a massive sell-off of its share by foreign investors after it posted a 20% y/y drop in net profit to KES 15.5bn ($104.4mn) in H1.

The increase in Co-op Bank’s stock comes after it clinched lucrative deals with the government to process cash in the G2G fuel import deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as the relaunched Nairobi Coffee Exchange.

“We reiterate that we view the bank’s E-credit lending as an earnings driver going forward with KES 6.4bn ($43.1mn) being disbursed monthly, though the NPLs [non-performing loans] are also quite elevated at 12 to 15%,” said analysts at Standard Investment Bank, as quoted by The Standard.

The analysts added that Co-op Bank partnership with the government in the G2G oil importation plan and the coffee exchange settlement platform should boost non-funded income going forward.

The bank, which is more than 60% controlled by the co-operative movement, gained slightly more than KES1.17bn ($7.88mn) value in September after posting a 5.8% growth in after-tax profit to KES 12.1bn ($81.5mn) in H1.

Co-op Bank ranks tops among the banks that have gained value in the wake of industry-wide fall in value over the last one month, during which time the 11 publicly-traded banks at the NSE lost acumulative KES19.3bn ($130mn) of value, according to The Standard.