Banks across most African markets were able to raise their interest rate spreads in 2012, suggesting opportunities for growth as net interest income rose for each dollar of assets. In total, for the 29 countries across which our database tracks three or more banks, the ratio of net interest income to total assets rose to 3.43% based on 2012 full-year results, from 3.09% the previous year.
Cameroon saw the steepest increase, with a climb of more than 100 basis points in the interest rate spread. But the total spread for the five Cameroonian banks tracked remains outside the top 10 highest spreads in Africa. Uganda tops that list with an interest spread of 9.55%, more than two percentage points higher than second-placed Malawi.
