Amcon, Nigeria’s resolution vehicle set up after its 2009 financial crisis, has made a lot of progress restructuring the billions of dollars of loans it holds. But its chief executive Mustafa Chike-Obi says its work will get harder and argues against calls for it to be wound down quickly.
Over the past two years banks have been hit by a huge wave of litigation relating to residential mortgages, interbank rates, consumer insurance and money laundering. Though lenders have largely managed to absorb the costs fairly easily, it seems that the regulators are not quite finished when it comes to dishing out fines.
With elections looming, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s next year as Nigeria’s finance minster promises to be even more demanding that usual. But she is determined to ensure that the country’s strong macroeconomic performance of recent years and reform agenda do not slip.
Liberia’s economy has come a long way since its devastating civil war ended 11 years ago, but it remains one of the world’s poorest countries. Amara Konneh, who won The Banker’s African Finance Minister of the Year award for 2014, tells Paul Wallace how the Liberian government is trying to change that.
Africa’s banking industry has gone through huge changes during Jacko Maree’s career. The former chief executive of Standard Bank believes the future for banks on the continent looks promising, but says they will have to adapt to regulatory changes and tap new types of clients. Interview by Paul Wallace.
In the latest ranking of African banks, Nigeria’s lenders had a blockbuster year in terms of profits, demonstrating their recovery from the country's 2009 crisis, while South Africa's banks remain way out in front of the rest of Africa, but continue to experience subdued growth.
Many investors are confident that 2013 will be remembered as the year the US economy finally started its recovery. For other parts of the world, not least the eurozone and most major emerging markets, the memories are likely to be a lot gloomier. Paul Wallace reports.
Somalia’s central bank governor has to create a financial system virtually from scratch. But, as Paul Wallace writes, there is no shortage of foreign and local investors wanting to establish banks in the country, which seems to be on the mend for the first time in two decades.