Barclays Africa group on Wednesday started its rebrand journey and will be changing its brand name to Absa group limited.

This follows a protracted process that has taken over 2 years in which Barclays Bank UK reduced its majority shares to 14. 9 percent as part of their plan to exit the African market.

According to  Ramesh Jha the Managing Director of Barclays bank Uganda, Barclays PLC reduced its majority shares in Barclays Africa Group limited from 62.3 percent to 14.9 percent.

"As you all know, Barclays PLC announced its intention to reduce its shareholding in its African business in March 2016, we began our journey from there and June 2017 Barclays reduced its share majority to where they are today which is 14.9 percent, " He said.

He further went on to say that other bank subsidiaries including Botswana, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, Tanzania and Uganda market will witness name changes between 2018 and 2020 after several approvals from the central bank.

Barclays refused to comment on issues of Job loss, preferring to focus on the name change.

The Absa group is one of the largest banks in South Africa, and it is not walking away from the separation with Barclays emptyhanded, the bank negotiated a 765 million pounds ($1 billion) breakaway package from Barclays for the investments needed in technology, rebranding and other separation-related expenses.