The Top 100 African Banks 2024 included three Mozambican banks. Standard Bank is in 54th place, followed by Millennium Bim (56th) and BCI (63rd). The top of the list continues to be dominated by South African banks.
In this year’s edition of the Top 100 African Banks, published by The Banker magazine, analysts concluded that the depreciation of the main African currencies against the dollar was the variable that most affected the assets and equity of the largest banks, particularly in South Africa (worth 40 per cent of total assets) and Nigeria (the third largest market).
Among the 100 largest banks on the continent, 52 institutions recorded a decline in the value of their assets expressed in dollars and 41 suffered a fall in the Tier 1 Capital indicator, which measures the degree of solvency. Performance improved substantially on the profits criterion, with 71 banks achieving positive results and the average rate of return before tax rising to 18.2 per cent.
The year went particularly badly for Nigerian banks due to rising inflation and the devaluation of the local currency (naira) by more than 50 per cent against the dollar. As a result, eight Nigerian banks (out of the top nine) lost more than 15 per cent of their Tier 1 Capital. For the same reasons, the year was also not favourable for Kenyan banks (of the 11 analysed, eight recorded double-digit reductions in profitability) and Angolan banks (whose asset values fell due to the sharp drop in the kwanza). Moroccan and Egyptian banks fared differently, with significant improvements in all indicators and generalised rises in their positions on the list of the largest banks.
National banks lose positions
As far as Mozambique is concerned, Standard Bank Moçambique (of the South African group Standard Bank) is the country’s best-ranked bank, according to the Tier 1 Capital criteria. The bank occupies 54th place among the 100 largest in Africa, although it lost four positions compared to last year’s list. On the other hand, Millennium bim has risen to 56th place (it was 61st) and BCI – Banco Comercial e de Investimentos has also risen to 63rd (it was 69th in 2023 and was not listed the previous year).
In the ranking by assets, all Mozambican banks improved, but the positions change.BCI leads, second is Millennium bim and third is Standard Bank Moçambique
In the ranking by assets, all Mozambican banks improved, but the positions are reversed. BCI leads with 3.3 billion dollars and is the 62nd largest in Africa (up four places). Second is Millennium bim with 3 billion dollars (67th, up eight places) and third is Standard Bank Moçambique with 2.5 billion (82nd, up one place).
In the ranking by profitability, the differences are even more slight. Millennium bim had pre-tax profits of 160 million dollars (up from 142 million last year), BCI had profits of 157 million (down from 172 million in 2023) and Standard Bank also increased from 143 to 154 million dollars this year.
Standard Bank leads the continent
The top of this year’s list continues to be occupied by South Africa’s Standard Bank, the only one from the neighbouring country to record an improvement in the value of Tier 1 Capital compared to last year, despite the 2.5% drop in assets, offset by the 23% growth in profits, in local currency. In the next positions are the South Africans FirstRand and Absa Group.
What’s new is that in fourth place comes Egypt’s Afreximbank, which dethroned South Africa’s Nedbank Group. Next up are three Moroccan banks (Attijariwafa Bank, Groupe Banques Populaire and Bank of Africa), one Egyptian (CIB Egypt) and, finally, another South African (Investec), which made the top 10 by swapping with Nigeria’s Zenith Bank.
By country, Egypt has the most banks in the African top 100 (16, one more than last year). It is followed by Kenya (with 11, up two), which superseded Nigeria (with nine, down two). Tunisia (nine) and Morocco (eight) maintained their number of banks, as did South Africa (which has only seven banks in the top 100, a sign of the trend towards concentration in the banking sector in this country) and Mauritius.
Angola with five banks in the Top 100
Also noteworthy is Angola, which managed to place five banks among the 100 largest in Africa. The national leader is BAI (Banco Angolano de Investimento) which occupies an enviable 30th position on the continent, BFA (Banco de Fomento Angola) is in 42nd place, Banco BIC in 43rd, Millennium Atlântico in 82nd and, finally, BPC (Banco Poupança e Crédito), which made its debut in the top with its entry into 99th place, being the only one to have increased its assets.
In the ranking of the best-performing African banks, the best-placed are Egypt’s CIB (Commercial International Bank), Ghana’s GTBank (Guaranty Trust Bank) and Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa.
Text: Jaime Fidalgo – Photo: D.R.
