Cape Times

Stanbic moves into West Africa

- Bloomberg

STANDARD Bank’s Ivory Coast unit plans to increase its capital levels this year as the continent’s largest lender uses the West African nation as a beachhead to expand into other Francophon­e countries.

“What we want first and foremost is to make Ivory Coast a success” before looking at other countries in the region, said Herve Boyer, country manager for the Johannesbu­rg-based lender’s Stanbic Bank unit.

The bank’s existing capital plus the extra injection will put it among the country’s top five lenders, he said, declining to be more specific.

Stanbic Bank is scheduled to open an office in the commercial hub of Abidjan at the end of May after receiving a licence to operate in the country last year, Boyer said in an interview this week.

It will eventually switch the licence into one that will cover the eight countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, whose members include Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Togo, he said.

Having a branch will allow Stanbic Bank to lend in CFA francs.

Infrastruc­ture The Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer, has expanded at an average rate of 9 percent per year since 2012, boosted by public spending in infrastruc­ture, including roads, bridges and dams.

Senegal, which is set to start producing oil from 2021, is also part of Stanbic Bank’s future plans, Boyer said.

The lender will focus on infrastruc­ture projects, agricultur­e, telecommun­ications, mining and energy in Ivory Coast, while supporting the government’s ambitions to process more of its natural resources from cocoa and cashews to gold locally, he said.

Despite a series of mutinies in Ivory Coast’s army that paralysed several cities earlier this year and showed that the military remains a threat to stability, the country will continue to expand, Boyer said, adding that the business environmen­t is improving.

“Are we going to continue to see 9 percent-growth? The answer is no. But we’ll still be in the range of 6 to 7 percent,” Boyer said.

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