in Depth

Banking Africa

Shaken by a tough pandemic, accelerating digitalisation plans, and spotting the precious green shoots of recovery: Our ranking of Africa’s top 200 banks is a snapshot of a continent re-inventing business models and scrabbling around for fresh financing after a season of tightened belts.

A woman shows a screen of her smartphone, where Access bank mobile app is seen among others, in Abuja

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bounce back

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Top 200 African banks: Shaken by Covid-19, but showing resilience EXCLUSIVE RANKING: AFRICA’S TOP 200 BANKS Pushed off balance, like the rest of the continental economy, by the Covid-19 crisis, Africa’s big banks h...

FILE PHOTO: Customers queue to draw money from an ATM outside a branch of South Africa’s Standard Bank in Cape Town © Customers at an ATM at a branch of South Africa’s Standard Bank in Cape Town, March 15, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings/File Photo

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Branching Out

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Standard Bank says South Africa needs a new banking model Standard Bank plans new partnerships in products and distribution as it seeks to sustain its first-half recovery, head of South Africa Lungisa Fuzile ...

Shoppers are seen outside a grocery store in the Kasanchiz areaa of Addis Ababa © Shoppers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia July 1, 2020. AZA Finance believes the country’s payments industry has a promising future. REUTERS/Maheder Haileselassie

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Sleeping Giants

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AZA Finance plans corporate FX, treasury entry into Ethiopia, Egypt Africa’s largest non-bank foreign exchange firm AZA Finance plans expansion into Ethiopia and Egypt, CEO Elizabeth Rossiello tells The Africa Report.

Tala app, an online financial micro lending platform is seen on a mobile phone in this photo illustration © Kenyan digital loan platforms such as Tala app will be regulated by the central bank if proposals before parliament become law. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

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Computer overlords

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Will AI risk analysis really expand access to credit in Africa? By analysing new-age mobile and web data, fintechs are starting to expand credit to individuals and SMEs without financial footprints. But concerns re...

A woman walks past an advertising poster for MTN telecommunication company along a street in Lagos

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hello cash cow

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Nigeria: MTN and Airtel furious at being locked out of mobile money market After years of uncertainties, Nigeria’s Central Bank finally gave the green light to mobile phone companies to offer mobile money services. However, t...

General view of hotels, banks and office buildings by the Nile River in Cairo © General view of hotels, banks and office buildings by the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt January 30, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

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Bouncing Back

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Top 200 African Banks: Optimism over Egypt’s banking sector outlook Egyptian banks have proven to be robust in the face of the pandemic, owing to government backing in different forms as well as favourable conditions.

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pandemic pressure

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Top 200 African Banks: ‘Nigeria is a long-term strategic, important market’, says Ecobank’s Ayeyemi The CEO of Ecobank Ade Ayeyemi says Nigeria is crucial to the pan-African bank’s fortunes and that the troubles exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis wil...

© MasterCard and VISA credit cards are seen in this picture illustration taken June 9, 2016. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev

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three card trick

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Top 200 African Banks: Visa VS Mastercard VS UnionPay China’s UnionPay is giving the US payments giants Visa and Mastercard a run for their money in Africa; fighting back, the two are investing in new fin...

Screenshot 2021-10-22 at 16.06.21 HQ of Attijariwafa bank in Casablanca, Morocco. © Hassan Ouazzani for JAMG

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up start

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Top 200 African Banks: Morocco’s Attijariwafa shows its digital agility Five years ago, Attijariwafa Bank (AWB), the leading bank in Morocco, set the tone: the group’s ambition was to position itself as ‘the top customer-...

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Top 200 African Banks

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Did Nigeria’s banks resist Covid-19? Access, UBA, GT, First and Zenith under the microscope Have Nigeria’s banks weathered the Covid-19 storm? We look under the hood of five of Nigeria’s biggest banks – Access Bank, FIrst Bank, United Bank fo...

Equity Bank’s Chief Executive Officer James Mwangi is seen during a Reuters interview in Nairobi

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wind down

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Kenya: Should over-liquid banks return capital to shareholders? In the middle of the pandemic, Kenyan banks doubled their net earnings year-on-year to KSh50bn ($458m) during the second quarter of 2021. However, upo...

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