WITHIN MINUTES OF taking off and flying north from Johannesburg airport, people, houses and roads dwindle into fields almost the size of English counties. It is not long before the fields disappear altogether, and nothing is left but grassland, peppered with trees, occasionally rising hills, and long, meandering rivers. The empty landscape extends largely the same for thousands of kilometres, until the Sahara, or the rainforest, makes it even more remote.
Is this the world’s largest untapped banking market?
Economists estimate that less than 10% of the potential market in sub-Saharan Africa has a formal banking relationship. But despite the remoteness, sub-Saharan Africa is in the midst of an unparalleled baby boom. UN demographers expect the population to almost double to 1.5 billion by 2040.
As such, even with the difficulties, foreign and local groups alike in east, west and southern Africa are rapidly expanding their branch networks...
You must be a subscriber to access this archived content.
If your subscription includes access to the archive, please log in now to view.
To gain access to this content visit the subscription page or call our hotline on +44 (0)207 779 8999.
Subscribe online now and save up to 30% on your subscription.
If you are a trialist or subscriber, please enter your username and password at the top right-hand side of euromoney.com
Subscribers to Euromoney benefit from:
- 12 months access in print and online - on euromoney.com, read the latest issue early online, search for specific developments by region or sector, interrogate the results of Euromoney's benchmark polls, and view the archive dating back to 1996
- More than 30 specialist research guides free
- The results of Euromoney’s polls and surveys
- Tailored RSS news feeds direct to your desktop
- News delivered directly to your mobile device or PC
- Personalised email newsfeed of 'Top stories' and 'Breaking news'
Click here to subscribe