Awards for Excellence 2018
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The partial withdrawal of international firms from African banking has been a big theme on the continent for several years. Whether it is Barclays’ decision to exit Africa just 11 years after it bought Absa or Old Mutual’s separation from South Africa’s Nedbank, the trend has been towards a paring down of perceived African risk.
With regulatory changes affecting how global banks manage risk-weighted asset growth, Africa’s local banks have found an opportunity to recover market share from their international rivals. Fewer global heavy-weights among the dominant banks on the continent means that African-born pan-continental institutions can take precedence. These include Morocco’s Attijariwafa Bank, which Euromoney named Africa’s best bank last year, and Ecobank.
But one global bank has bucked that trend, seeing great value in Africa even as many of its competitors shy away: Société Générale. It is Africa’s best bank in 2018.
The bank is present in 19 countries, primarily in francophone West Africa but also in Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique and South Africa. It has over 11,700 employees working in over 1,000 branches and caters to 3.7 million clients.
There is full support for the African business from the top of the bank.
Chief executive Frédéric Oudéa says: “Africa is a continent of opportunity undergoing a full-scale revolution. On top of the fantastic energy of Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, we are convinced that growth in Africa will initially come from the private sector and that it is vital that all economic players, including French and African SMEs and mid-cap companies, get on board.”
Morocco is its largest market in Africa, but the bank is also well positioned south of the Sahara, as one of the largest financial institutions in the booming Ivorian market. In sub-Saharan Africa, Société Générale has deposits of €6.6 billion and loans outstanding of €5.5 billion, generating a net banking income of €1.3 billion.
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| Frédéric Oudéa |
The bank continues to expand geographically. In 2015, it moved into Togo and Mozambique, and in September 2017 it received regulatory approval to open a representative branch in Kenya. As regional head Alexandre Maymat told Euromoney Africa last year: “We are still exploring new territories. Africa is a differentiating factor for SocGen.”
In 2017, Société Générale launched Yup, a mobile money solution offering a full range of transactional and financial services even without a bank account. Deployed first in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, Yup is now being launched in Ghana, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Togo.
Among the many projects showing the bank’s commitment to technological advancement in the region two stand out: the innovation lab launched in Tunisia in September and the digital branch launched in Burkina Faso in July.
Société Générale held firm in Africa even when times were tough. Now it is well positioned to benefit as rising commodity prices and long-awaited leadership changes in Angola, Zimbabwe and South Africa combine to generate renewed optimism in the continent’s economic prospects.
