While South African banks continue to dominate the Top 100 sub-Saharan African banks listing, their dominance is declining and the Nigerian banks are slowly asserting themselves. The dozen South African banks, which again take the leading five places in the Top 100 listing, this year account for 59.6% of the aggregate Top 100 Tier 1 capital of $44.3bn, 75.1% of aggregate total assets of $622.1bn and 69.2% of aggregate pre-tax profits of $14.7bn.
The five top South Africans are led yet again by Standard Bank Group with a Tier 1 capital strength of $8.02bn, followed by First Rand Banking Group, ABSA Group, Nedbank and Investec. Standard Bank is also the largest sub-Saharan bank in assets terms, with assets of $174.9bn, 85% larger than its nearest rival ABSA Group.
Oceanic wave
Nigerian banks account for 18 of the Top 100 and they are all within the leading 31 places. The Nigerians are led this year by Oceanic Bank in sixth place overall, having jumped from 14th last year following a 483.7% increase in capital to $1.75bn. Oceanic, followed by Intercontinental Bank, Access Bank and Guaranty Trust Bank, are part of the leading Nigerian group; the 18 Nigerians account for 27.8% of the aggregate Tier 1 capital (up from 20.5% last year), 13.5% of aggregate total assets and 14.6% of aggregate pre-tax profits.
Togo’s Ecobank Transnational follows at 13th this year down from 10th with Tier 1 capital of $620m and operations in eight African countries. Mauritius Commercial Bank comes next at 17th, back up from 13th last year with Tier 1 capital of $331m.
The next largest banking market is Kenya, which has 10 banks in the Top 100 and accounts for 2.6% of overall Tier 1 capital of $44.3bn at $1.15bn, 1.7% of aggregate total assets of $622.1bn and 2.9% of aggregate pre-tax profits of $14.7bn.
Behind Kenya comes Mauritius with banks with $697m in Tier 1 capital, followed by Togo with Tier 1 of $620m, Angola with Tier 1 of $459m and Ghana with Tier 1 of $421m.
