Country Awards for Excellence 2017: Africa

© 2017 Euromoney

Regional awards

View full 2017 results

	Angola		Botswana		Ghana		Ivory Coast
	Kenya		Malawi		Mauritius		Morocco
	Mozambique		Nigeria		Rwanda		Senegal
	South Africa		Tanzania		Tunisia		Uganda
	Zambia		Zimbabwe

Angola Best bank: Banco Angolano de Investimentos

Angola’s economy continues to suffer from low oil prices, a poorly functioning system of government and the influence of the state on the private sector.

One bank that nonetheless did well despite this difficult context was Banco Angolano de Investimentos – last year’s winner, which this year retains the title of best bank in the country. BAI increased its total assets by a quarter, to NKz1.36 trillion ($8.2 billion), deposits by 21% and net interest income by 64%. Its return on average equity, meanwhile, stood at an impressive 34.2%.

BAI also sought to improve its corporate governance, and last year introduced a risk-management department. While one may question why the bank had not previously had such a division, its creation can only be applauded. The new department will hopefully help mitigate the many risks that continue to plague the Angolan market.

Botswana Best bank: First National Bank of Botswana

Botswana saw its economic prospects improve during 2016, as diamond sales picked up and the country’s fiscal stimulus programme delivered positive results. 

In this context, First National Bank of Botswana (FNB) stood out as the bank with the best results and, importantly, the clearest vision for the future. Behind its snappy slogan ‘From bricks to clicks’ is a concerted effort to encourage customers to migrate to the bank’s new digital service platforms. 

Today the bank’s customers can transact at any time online through the FNB app. The bank also launched eBucks, a system by which customers earn points for using the digital banking tools. FNB also has a 70% market share of point-of-sale channels in the country.

In part due to rising infrastructure costs, FNB’s operating expenses rose by 31%, leading to a profit before tax decline of 13% – to P660 million ($65 million). Still, the bank’s fundamentals were strong, with return on equity at 20%. And the bank’s loan book kept expanding, with credit growth of about 10%.

Ghana Best bank: Ecobank Ghana

As a group, Ecobank, the pan-African banking group, may not have had the best of years. Its non-performing loan ratio rose to 9.6% and its $205 million profit before tax in 2015 morphed into a $131 million loss, as the economic situation in Nigeria and the adoption of a new impairment charge dragged the bank’s results down.

But Ecobank Ghana did markedly better than its parent and once again deserves the title of best bank in the Ghana. There its total assets grew by 30% – to C8 billion ($1.8 billion). The bank’s loan book also grew, as did its revenue, from C1 billion in 2015 to C1.2 billion last year.

The non-performing loan ratio, meanwhile, fell from 18.01% to 15.87%. Ecobank’s Ghanaian operation also benefited from the parent group’s pan-African launch of a new mobile banking application, giving customers easier access to their accounts.

Ecobank Ghana did much more than improve its numbers; it contributed to the community by sponsoring a number of school and health programmes around the country.

Ivory Coast Best bank: Société Générale de Banques en Côte d’Ivoire

Another addition to the list of African countries acknowledged in these awards, Ivory Coast, had a tumultuous year marked by military mutiny and political unrest.

One bank that maintained its dominant position through that rocky period was Société Générale de Banques en Côte d’Ivoire (SGCI), the French institution’s Ivorian bank, which becomes a worthy winner of the award for best bank in Ivory Coast.

SGCI, which is headed by Hubert de Saint Jean and commands a 25% market share in the country, registered strong numbers over the last year. Its net banking income rose from €124 million in 2015 to €141 million.

The bank worked on a CFEFr190 billion ($326 million) syndicated loan for mobile operator Orange Côte d’Ivoire last year and announced a new banking service, Youp, which will provide secure payment options for the country’s unbanked without requiring them to open an account.

SGCI also opened trading floors in Abidjan last year, demonstrating once again its commitment to the region.

Kenya Best bank: Kenya Commercial Bank

Kenya, the east African country with the largest banking sector, had a difficult year, as the country’s parliament introduced a law capping interest rates on commercial loans. The bill effectively reduced the volume of loans issued by banks and brought down banks’ interest income.

Unsurprisingly, Equity Bank, last year’s winner of best bank in Kenya and best bank in Africa, had a poor year. As its rival struggled, Kenya Commercial Bank, led since 2012 by young CEO Joshua Oigara, emerged as the country’s best. KCB’s non-performing loans rose 47%, but that was small compared with the 160% increase experienced by Equity.

And as Equity’s profit fell 4.4%, KCB’s rose by 0.5% – a strong result in relative terms. KCB’s return on equity, meanwhile, stood at a very healthy 22%.

Beyond these raw numbers, it is important to note just how much work KCB has done in the SME sector – one with particular importance in Kenya’s economy.

The KCB Biashara Club, which has 12,000 members, provided a useful platform by offering business advisory services through seminars and workshops. Around 70 events took place last year, six of them dedicated to women entrepreneurs.

Financial inclusion is also a key area of focus for the bank. KCB’s Bankika account continues to appeal to the young and grew to 1.3 million customers. Additionally, the bank launched its mobile payment system mPOS, which allows faster, easier and more affordable transactions. 

Malawi Best bank: Ecobank Malawi

Another bank that retains its title from last year is Ecobank Malawi, which again had a great year, marked by strong growth across most key metrics. 

Some of the changes over the past 12 months are extraordinary in the circumstances. The bank halved its non-performing loan ratio to just 2%, while increasing its market share of loans by 45%. Total loans rose 54%, to $71 million. Return on equity also rose, reaching 36%, with profits before tax growing 54% to $8 million.

Ecobank Malawi introduced new products during the year, including the Njatonse account, which allows a very low minimum balance to cater for Malawi’s low-income earners. The launch of the account helped the bank grow its customer base 25% to over 26,000. It also aggressively pushed its mobile banking solution in partnership with Airtel Money, helping it reach unbanked areas of the country. It doubled the number of its ATMs to 26 to bring banking closer to its customers.

Mauritius Best bank: Mauritius Commercial Bank

Mauritius remained a haven of stability in African banking over the last year, as the country’s GDP growth was unharmed by weakness in the commodity market.

Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) did especially well, thereby reclaiming the award for best bank in Mauritius. With a return on equity of 17% and a 12% net profit growth (to $156 million), MCB has shown that even as a well-established institution, it is still capable of growing fast.

Total deposits expanded by 17% and the non-performing loan ratio dropped slightly, from 5.9% to 5.7%. The bank, which has close to 1 million customers, is not only prominent in Mauritius but also in sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly half of its net profit is sourced abroad.

It has set itself targets for future growth: pursue digital transformation, expand private banking in Africa and promote international hotel and project finance.

As a recent step toward the third of those objectives, the bank’s project finance team became involved in the financing of a property development in the north of the island, with earmarked facilities amounting to some $100 million, out of a total project cost of some $160 million.

Morocco Best bank: Attijariwafa Bank

It is hard to overstate Attijariwafa Bank’s dominance in the Moroccan banking sector, and this last year was no different. In fact, Attijariwafa exceeded expectations, growing more than in recent years and expanding into new territory with the well-timed acquisition of an Egyptian bank.

Attijariwafa grew all of its key metrics: total assets were up 4.3%, to Dh429 billion ($43.8 billion) , net income was up 12.4%, to Dh5.7 billion, and loans were up 7.4%, to Dh272 billion.

Although Attijariwafa is growing internationally, these results are largely due to its performance at home, with three quarters of its loan book made up of credit extended in Morocco.

Last year, the bank launched a five-year strategic plan, ‘Energies 2020’, to improve customer service. In the first few months of the programme, Attijariwafa redesigned e-banking platforms, developed new electronic payment systems, digitized retail loan processes and launched a 100% digital bank called L’bankalik. These positive early achievements bode well for the rest of the programme. 

Mozambique Best bank: Millennium bim

Mozambique continued its downward spiral last year, as it informed creditors that its debt levels were unsustainable. The country has since been working to regain the support of the IMF and to come to an agreement with its creditors. 

Still, Mozambican banks are finding ways to grow their business. Last year, we chose Banco Unico, then a four-year old bank. Although far smaller than Millennium bim, Banco Unico’s phenomenal levels of growth justified a win in 2016. 

This year Millennium bim demonstrated that it was not only by far the largest bank in the country, but also that it was still capable of innovation. For those reasons, the title of best bank in Mozambique returns to Millennium bim.

Over the awards period, Millennium launched new products and partnerships. The bank expanded its partnership with the Postal Services of Mozambique around the country to promote financial inclusion through the use of postal branches as banking agents.

The bank’s mobile banking platform, Millennium IZI, went from strength to strength, growing to 7.1 million transactions a month and to 400,000 frequent customers.

During 2016, the bank also expanded Millennium bim JáJá, a banking service that provides financial services to people in rural and suburban areas. Growing from 85 agents at the end of 2015 to 320 at the end of last year, the service more than tripled its number of transactions. 

Overall, Millennium bim grew its net income by 34%, to Mt5 billion ($82 million).

Nigeria Best bank: Guaranty Trust Bank Best investment bank: Chapel Hill Denham

Nigeria went through a difficult year as low oil prices and capital flight continued to hurt the economy. While, to the northeast, Egypt unpegged its currency, the pound, to improve its appeal to international investors, Nigeria’s central bank did not follow suit.

Many banks struggled in this business environment. One that outperformed was Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), which won last year and retains the title of best bank in Nigeria.

As other financial institutions were reeling from the country’s economic conditions, GTBank, headed by Segun Agbaje, increased its total assets from N2.5 trillion ($8 billion) to N3.1 trillion, and its profits before tax from N121 billion to N165 billion. The bank also improved its tier-1 capital.

Its NPL ratio rose too, but only by 0.43 percentage points to 3.66%. And its return on equity stood by year end at a very healthy 28.8%.

GTBank continued to find success in its digital evolution. As of the end of the first quarter of 2017, the bank’s customer base had reached 10 million – three times what it was five years ago – in large part, the bank says, thanks to its digital transformation.

Over 3 million of the bank’s customers have signed up to Bank 737, GTBank’s mobile banking platform, with N110 billion-worth of transactions every month. The holding of two new events – a food fair and a fashion show – in support of budding Nigerian businesses proved a success, with more than 200 small retailers and over 50,000 guests in attendance.

In a year of muted investment banking activity, Chapel Hill Denham once again stood out from its Nigerian peers, working on the greatest number and the most important of the year’s deals to win best investment bank in Nigeria

Chapel Hill worked on a wide range of transactions: five in M&A, totalling $477 million; 12 debt capital markets deals worth $3.7 billion; and one equity capital markets, a $164 million rights issue for Union Bank of Nigeria. It also acted on seven advisory transactions, totalling $1.45 billion, the largest being the restructuring of $1.2 billion of multi-currency syndicated debt for telecoms operator Etisalat Nigeria. Chapel Hill is financial adviser on that restructuring and has been instrumental in re-opening discussions with creditors and regulators to get to a restructuring framework.

The bank also worked on deals as varied as GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Nigeria’s sale of its drinks business in the country, Lafarge Africa’s acquisition of United Cement and Access Bank’s sale of its minority stake in Nigeria’s largest pension fund manager.

Rwanda Best bank: Bank of Kigali

Rwanda may not have the largest, or healthiest, banking sector, but Bank of Kigali, for one, carries on regardless, growing consistently year after year. It is the worthy winner of this year’s best bank in Rwanda award.

The bank’s revenue grew by 20.7%, to RF77 billion ($95.3 million), and total assets by 13.7%, to RF638 billion. The return on average equity dropped slightly, from 21.8% in 2015, but at 20% at the end of last year, it was still a strong performance.

With a market share of about a third in total assets, net loans, deposits and equity, Bank of Kigali remains the country’s dominant financial institution. The bank serves close to 240,000 retail customers and over 25,000 corporate clients.

As Bank of Kigali continues to expand, it is considering listing abroad, in Nairobi, Johannesburg or London.

Senegal Best bank: Compagnie Bancaire de l’Afrique Occidentale

Senegal, an addition to Euromoney’s awards for excellence in Africa, is a country with a large and vibrant banking community, which deserves to be recognized.

Attijariwafa, the Moroccan bank, has been present in the country since 2008. The bank’s Senegalese subsidiary, Compagnie Bancaire de l’Afrique Occidentale (CBAO), is our inaugural winner of best bank in Senegal.

CBAO has more than 270,000 customers, catered for by 85 branches and 1,000 employees. The bank commands a 20% market share of loans in the country and is the third-largest contributor to Attijariwafa’s income, behind Morocco and Tunisia.

But beyond the raw figures, CBAO has shown that it understands the importance of innovation. Together with Wafa Assurance Sénégal, it launched five new products in bank insurance. It also introduced a mobile banking app, CBAO Mobile.

CBAO created a dedicated team of bankers tasked with assisting the bank’s smallest corporate clients. Meanwhile, the Club Afrique Développement, founded by CBAO, organized events designed to answer local and international investors’ questions about the market. The last conference, held in October, was about opportunities for the country’s SMEs.

Finally, CBAO launched three new operations, in Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin – an example of its willingness to develop its business in new directions.

South Africa Best bank: FirstRand Bank Best investment bank: Standard Bank

South Africa had a difficult year after the sacking of the country’s finance minister led to weeks of political unrest. The country’s economy, meanwhile, moved into recession, with a reported 0.7% contraction in GDP in the first quarter of 2017.

The country’s banks found themselves in a difficult business environment. In that context, FirstRand Bank, last year’s best bank in South Africa claims the prize once again, thanks to its stunning growth and its commitment to innovation. Its efforts in digital transformation have resulted in a 26% drop in customer teller volumes and a 76% increase in mobile app usage.

Meanwhile, its profits rose 8% year on year and its normalized return on equity was at a strong 24%, down only slightly from 2015’s 24.7%. That is impressive considering that 86% of the bank’s profit before tax is derived from the South African market, making it dependent on the health of the country’s economy.

The bank’s success owed much to its strategy of offering compelling new products to its customers, such as such as eBucks, Slow lounges and fuel and data and airtime rewards. The banking app, cellphone banking and e-wallet innovations continued to attract customers.

In South African investment banking, Standard Bank led the pack, rising dramatically up the league tables. The most impressive rise was in M&A advisory, where it ranked first, having advised on $7.6 billion-worth of deals over the last year, up from just $768 million the year before. (In 2015, it ranked just 18th in this category.)

The bank, whose corporate and investment banking arm is led by Kenny Fihla, also performed well in the equity capital markets, moving from seventh to fifth place. It was the only South African bank among the leads on the IPO of drug retailer Dis-Chem, the country’s second-largest listing ever, raising R4.4 billion ($342 million). In debt capital markets, it came first by volume, having worked on more than $1 billion of transactions.

Standard Bank has been sole financial adviser and transaction sponsor to Bidvest in its R102 billion unbundling of food services assets, Bidcorp. This is a milestone for one of the bank’s biggest clients, and one the bank has been instrumental in bringing to fruition.

From its corporate and investment banking services, Standard Bank’s headline earnings improved from R9 billion to R10.6 billion over the year. Return on equity was up, from 18% to 20%.

Tanzania Best bank: National Microfinance Bank

Tanzania goes from strength to strength, with a growing economy, a vibrant microfinance sector and expanding mobile and internet access. Now the country, which once appeared weak in comparison with Kenya’s successes, is looking to overtake its northern neighbour. 

The bank that has done most to enable that success story is National Microfinance Bank (NMB), which wins this year’s best bank in Tanzania award.

For the 10th year running NMB is the most profitable bank in the country, with profit after tax up slightly, to TSh154 billion ($69 million). It continues to expand lending; TSh2.8 trillion-worth of loans and advances were made last year.

With a record 2.2 million customers last year, NMB, which is headed by Ineke Bussemaker, is by far the largest of the country’s financial institutions. Its total assets now reach close to TSh5 trillion, up nearly TSh400 billion over the year.

Although microfinance is in the bank’s name, NMB has been diversifying its activities. Only around a quarter of its loan book can now be categorized as microfinance and SME lending. That means that, while NMB is still the best provider of microfinance in Tanzania, it now caters to the full corporate spectrum.

Tunisia Best bank: Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie

Tunisia, another addition to this year’s award countries, has a relatively large and vibrant banking sector.

The fiercest competition to be the first winner was between BIAT and Attijari Bank, Attijariwafa’s Tunisian bank. Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie (BIAT) takes the prize by virtue of its much greater size, combined with fast growth and technological innovation.

BIAT’s deposits grew 12.2% over the last year, to $930 million; net credit rose 16.6%, to $800 million; and net income rose 11.5%, to $61 million. BIAT’s return on equity increased to 23%, despite the country’s shaky economy.

In terms of innovation, the bank opened its first self-service branch in Tunis in the first quarter of this year, giving access to banking services over longer hours (seven days a week, from 6am to 10pm). In July last year, BIAT launched a new website that is easier to use than the one before. 

In November 2016, it organized two events aimed at strengthening its ties with corporate clients, from two regions of the country. Around 500 clients attended.

The bank will have to look out for its rival Attijariwafa, however. The pace of growth it is achieving – net income growth of 15.4% in 2016 – makes Africa’s regional best bank an increasingly strong competitor for BIAT.

Uganda Best bank: Stanbic Bank Uganda

Uganda went through a roller coaster year, as the World Bank suspended lending to the country in 2016 because of its poor use of funds, only to lift the suspension in the first half of this year.

Through the turmoil, Stanbic Bank Uganda managed to keep its business together and even grow it substantially. The bank, which won last year, retains the title of best bank in Uganda this year.

Stanbic Bank Uganda’s return on equity stands at an impressive 30.3%, up from 29.2% a year ago. Its profit before tax rose markedly, however: from USh203.3 billion ($57 million) at the end of 2015 to USh253.9 billion at year-end 2016. Assets grew from USh3.5 trillion to USh4.6 trillion.

Stanbic Bank Uganda also played its part in corporate social responsibility, spending USh1.1 billion, 15% higher than the year before, on supporting initiatives with a focus on education.

Zambia Best bank: Standard Chartered

Zambia came under strain in 2015 and 2016, when GDP grew at a rate of about 3% a year, far below the 7% of the preceding decade. Slower regional growth and lower copper prices contributed to that slowdown. In recent months, the near-term outlook of the Zambian economy has improved, however, aided by a bumper harvest and increased hydroelectricity generation.

Two banks – Stanbic Bank, last year’s winner, and Standard Chartered – continued to do well through this troubled time. But it was Standard Chartered that stood out and deserves the title of best bank in Zambia in 2017. 

The bank’s total revenues were up 15% over the last year, to ZK811 million ($88 million) and its assets grew 21%, to ZK6.6 billion. The bank’s non-performing loan ratio rose by one percentage point to 4%, but Standard Chartered should be commended for working to grow its loan book further. Total loans grew 13%, to ZK3 billion.

As a key supporter of the economy, the bank agreed to $60 million of financing for the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation to increase transmission capacity to households and industry. Standard Chartered also expanded its mobile money wallet by signing a new partnership with MTN, Zambia’s largest mobile telecommunications provider.

Zimbabwe Best bank: Standard Chartered

Another year, another series of struggles for Zimbabwe’s economy. The latest one is a crippling cash shortage, which has left many companies unable to pay their workers’ wages.

There are still financial institutions surviving in that tough environment, however. For Euromoney’s best bank in Zimbabwe award, Standard Chartered stood out among the country’s five large financial institutions because of its outstanding growth, as well as its efforts to benefit from the growing trade between Africa and Asia.

The bank’s assets grew 31%, to $383 million. Profit grew from $403,000 in 2015 to $13.4 million last year due to controls on very high operating expenses.

Standard Chartered is making an effort to develop ties with the local Chinese community and to benefit from the growing trade between Africa and Asia. It was the first bank to accept China UnionPay cards at its ATMs, for example.