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Best Bank: Barclays |
Recently the banking market in Botswana has been growing at one of the fastest rates in Africa and results were still impressive in 2008. A crash in demand for diamonds in the US might put an end to this, even though the Africa Development Bank has advanced the country a $1.5 billion loan.
One of the country’s largest banks, First National Bank of Botswana, a subsidiary of South Africa’s First National Bank, grew profits by 21% in 2008, to a local currency equivalent of $54 million. But this pales in comparison with the growth in profits at the bank with the largest network in the country, Barclays.
In 2008 profit at Barclays in Botswana was the local-currency equivalent of $60 million, 74% higher than in 2007, despite a 27% rise in operating expenses thanks to retail expansion.
Also worthy of mention is Letshego, a consumer lending company for those on lower incomes, which has operations in Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Uganda, as well as Botswana, where it is based.