JPMorgan Chase, the US financial giant that deals in asset management, private banking and corporate and investment banking across the world, is weighing possibilities of setting up an office in Kenya to help it cover the east African market well as the region slowly emerge as an oil and gas hot bed with huge discoveries cutting across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Mozambique.

The American investment bank already has a representative office in Nigeria in addition to its South African presence, managed the Kenyan government’s debut $2 billion bonds and along with Citigroup. It is also financing planes for Kenya Airways.

It has more than 150 staff in South Africa, Bloomberg reported.

“We would want a representative office in East Africa but it depends on the regulatory environment,” Marc Hussey, joint senior country officer for sub-Saharan Africa, told Bloomberg in an Interview “There are interesting pockets of opportunity, such as Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.”