The Banker magazine‘s Top 100 African Banks 2024 included three Mozambican banks. The best positioned is Standard Bank Moçambique, in 54th place (down four places on last year). It is followed by Millennium bim (56th, up five) and Banco Comercial e de Investimentos (BCI) (63rd, up six). Find out what else is new in the continent’s ranking, in which South African banks dominate the top three places and Egypt is the country with the most appearances in the top 100.
The Top 100 African Banks is published annually by The Banker magazine according to the Tier 1 Capital indicator, which measures the degree of solvency of the banking sector. According to this criterion, Standard Bank Moçambique (part of the South African Standard Bank group) is the country’s best-ranked bank, occupying 54th place, 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 has also risen to 63rd place (it was 69th in 2023 and the previous year it wasn’t even on this list).
In the ranking by assets, all Mozambican banks improved, but the positions were 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 with 2.5 billion (82nd, up one place).
In the ranking by profitability, the differences are more subtle. 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.
The top of this year’s list continues to be dominated by three South African banks: Standard Bank, FirstRand and Absa Group. What’s new is that Egypt’s Afreximbank has dethroned South Africa’s Nedbank Group in fourth place. Next up are three Moroccan banks (Attijariwafa Bank, Groupe Banques Populaire and Bank of Africa), an Egyptian bank (CIB Egypt) and a South African bank (Investec) that made it into the top 10 by swapping with Nigeria’s Zenith Bank.
Angola now has five banks in the African Top 100
By country, Egypt has the most banks (16) in the African Top 100. This is followed by Kenya (11), Nigeria and Tunisia (both with nine) and Morocco (eight). South Africa has only seven, a sign of the trend towards concentration in the banking sector in that country. Angola also stands out with five banks in the top 100. BAI occupies an enviable 30th place on the continent, BFA is in 42nd, BIC in 43rd, Millennium Atlântico in 82nd and, finally, Banco Poupança e Crédito makes its debut in the Top with a 99th place finish.
In the ranking of the best-performing African banks ( The Banker ‘s analysts consider various criteria such as profitability, growth, liquidity, solvency and asset quality), the best-ranked is Egypt’s CIB (Commercial International Bank), followed by Ghana’s GTBank (Guaranty Trust Bank) and Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa, a country which, like South Africa, has been penalised by the devaluation of its currency.
Jaime Fidalgo
