Queen Nwabueze
How knowledgeable are you about banks in Africa and their assets? Did you know, there are 763 commercial banks located across the 54 countries that make up the African continent?
Reports say, Kenya and Egypt have the highest concentration of commercial banks in Africa at 39 and 37, respectively. On the other hand, Tanzania has 34 commercial banks, followed by Nigeria with 24, Uganda with 24 and Ghana with 23.
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Note that the African continent has a smaller number of commercial banks compared to other continents. For context, Asia has at least 1,900, European Union has about 6,000 while the USA has more than 4,000.
In the same vein, African banks have significantly lower valuations compared to their foreign counterparts. But this is not to say that all African banks have low valuations. As you will see shortly, some African banks have total assets valued at over $100 billion. Assets include all the properties, cash, account receivables and other valuable resources owned by corporations such as banks.
Below are the largest banks in Africa by asset size. List is comprised mostly of South African and North African banks.
- Standard Bank (Stanbank) Group: At $172.9 billion, this South African bank has the largest asset size in Africa.
- National Bank of Egypt: This Egyptian bank’s total asset size is $124.9 billion.
- Absa Bank: This is another South African bank with an asset size of $87.8 billion.
- FirstRand: The third South African bank on the top 10 list has a total asset size of $81.9 billion.
- Nedbank Group: This South African bank has an asset size of $78.6 billion.
- Attijariwafa Bank: This Moroccan bank has an asset size of $63.8 billion.
- Banque Misr: This Egyptian bank has an asset size of $57.9 billion.
- Banque Centrale Populaire: This is a Moroccan bank with an asset size of $49.9 billion.
- BMCE Bank Group: This is another Moroccan bank with an asset size of $37.3 billion.
- Investec Bank: Lastly, this South African bank has an asset size of $29.9 billion.
