African Banker

News

African Banking Finds Firmer Ground

New Appointments

Moving Fast Without Haste

In a crowded marketplace, new entrants have to make an impact if they are to compete. Innovative Zemen Bank, which raised birr 150 million from shareholders and opened its doors for business in October 2008, is growing fast despite its one-branch strategy. African Banker spoke to the CEO, Brutawit Dawit Abdi, about what her many years of top-level banking experience in US and Ethiopia are bringing to the new bank. Zemen used its service-driven approach to win the businesses of major exporters...

Is Microfinance Running Out of Steam?

Contrary to hopes that microfinance institutions (MFI) would be insulated from shocks in the real economy, many African microfinance institutions, which provide credit to the neediest, have been hit by the financial crisis. The 2009 Microfinance Banana Skins survey of risk published by the London-based Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation found Africa's MFI battling weaknesses in management, staffing and governance; and the ill wind from straitened financial markets has created fight ...

Losing the Baby with the Bath-Water?

Nigeria's banking industry has gone through the mill over the past year and a half. It seems only yesterday that the country's banks were sweeping all before them and expanding not only across Africa but also into the financial capitals of the world. The landscape has changed completely today. Legendary names have quit the scene, some as a result of the Central Bank's (CBN) new tenure regulation, others under a cloud, given their marching orders by the CBN. With the ongoing mergers and acquis...

Urgent Need for Makeover

The creation of stronger, deeper and more efficient financial infrastructures in Africa's least developed countries (LDC) is crucial for sustainable development. African LDCs are ranked the lowest in the world in indicators for efficient financial operations in terms of registering property, getting credit, protecting investors and contract enforceability. The LDCs' banking sectors are highly concentrated and less efficient, with high operational costs. The benchmarks for sectoral efficiency ...

Who Will Cut the Gordian Knot?

The Zimbabwe Reserve Bank (RBZ) has conceded that it is close to collapse. The Bank is suffering from a severe shortage of funds, is weighed down by a protracted labor dispute and failure to service debts, among a host of other problems. Finance Minister Tendai Biti (of the MDC-Tsvangirai camp) has refused to adequately fund the RBZ and says he will not do so until the RBZ reforms and its governor Gideon Gono, recently reappointed by President Robert Mugabe, is stripped of his absolute power ...

Trends

Will South Africa's Reserve Bank Be Nationalised?

The number of voices in public, private and institutional quarters calling for the nationalization of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is rising -- particularly in some quarters in the government, organized labor and representative bodies. Speaking for the Cosatu labor conglomerate, senior spokesman Patrick Craven gives the Bank's nationalization a firm thumbs up. That the Reserve Bank is constitutionally independent doesn't mean shareholders can't attempt to influence its decisions behi...

Feature

Atm Security Forum

Nigerian bankers, vendors and regulators met at the end of March for African Banker's inaugural ATM Security Forum. With a population of over 154 million people and a GDP of over $207 billion Nigeria is the fastest growing Automated Teller Machine (ATM) Market in Africa and is on the brink of a rapid expansion of ATM deployment. ATM security and ATM Fraud remains a key sticking point if banks and its customers are to make full use of this technology. Nigeria's inaugural ATM Security Forum arr...

Investment

Leader of the New Pack

As the dust from the global financial crisis begins to settle, Africa is emerging as an investment destination of choke for those in the know. Nevertheless, it came as a bit of a surprise to learn that the executive chairman of one of the latest Africa-dedicated funds, Ariya Capital, was born and raised in Transylvania, German-speaking Romania, during the communist regime. Herta von Stiegel says her affection for Africa began when she visited parts of the continent as a tourist. Now she is ba...

African Banker'S World

Give Women Financial Access - Odinga

Bharti Raises $8bn for Zain Buy-Out

Old Mutual to Rejig Us Assets

World Bank Considers Energy Investments

Afriland Buys Zambia Bank

No New S Africa Regulator

E Africa: 'No' to 2012 Common Currency

Kenya Urged to Increase Deposit Guarantees

Zap Ghana Launched

Standard Seeks Nigeria Expansion

Eib to Lend Tunisia $900m

Congo Receives $2.4bn Debt Cancellation

Africa And The World

Indians and Africans Are Kindred Souls

Born and educated in India, Sanjeev Gupta specializes in emerging economies. Currently based in Dubai, he has been responsible for driving South Africa's financial services group Sanlam Investment's expansion into various markets in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and India. The Indian entrepreneur shares with his African counterpart a street-savvy approach to doing business. He senses that the African political set-up and the corporate culture seem to react very positively to the Indian ...

Exchanges

African Stock Markets

The Africa Board of the JSE Ltd, one of several initiatives under way to link Africa's exchanges, aims to spend 2010 building on the relationships created with all stakeholders in 2009 ensuring greater awareness of the Africa Board. The key objective of the JSE Africa Board is to assist in the development of the other exchanges on the continent. Integration of the as African Stock Exchanges Association (ASEA) to make cross-listing and Africa-wide issues easier will assist in capital raising a...

Reflection

Chris Hart Get Rid of Entrenched Elites

Chris Hart is well known in South Africa's financial circles not only for his forthright views on the performance of the country's economy and those that are custodians of fiscal policy, but as an entertaining and provocative public speaker. During the Davos World Economic Forum Summit's and Omega's annual Euro-African Conferences in London and Munich, his reputation as a brilliant economic commentator was further underlined with a demolition of the underlying logic of the West's financial se...