Awards for Excellence 2018
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