In this year’s survey of Africa’s Top 100 Banks, profits have fallen but total tier 1 capital has risen 10.9% to $124.5bn, while North Africa’s banks are starting to challenge the continental dominance of South Africa’s big four.
Our annual survey ranks Africa’s banks according to their Tier 1 capital. This consists of: capital + reserves + retained earnings + minority interests. These are published in local currencies and then converted into US dollars at the exchange rates at the year-end date in the results (or on 31 December 2020), so changing FX rates can affect the ranking.
We collect the data from Bankers’ Almanac and from the in-house research of African Business . We have excluded some banks where data is old or unreliable.
In the article below, Tom Minney looks at how Africa’s leading banks are coping in the second year of the Covid pandemic. We include a table giving the full ranking of the Top 100 Banks, plus links to articles focusing on Africa’s regions.
How did Africa’s leading banks fare in the past year, a year defined by the Covid-19 pandemic which led to massive disruptions to businesses, volatility in commodity prices and a shift in consumption patterns and the way people paid for goods and services?
The short answer is that they continued on their positive growth trajectory, and they nearly all remained profitable.
Across the leading banks, profits have fallen hard compared to the 2019 ranking, partly driven by increased provision for non-performing loans as banks and regulators prepared for giant impacts on businesses and other borrowers from the global health pandemic.
By the second half of 2021, many economies are bouncing back or even accelerating, despite a resurgence of the virus in many countries driving renewed lockdowns and restrictions.
Consultants at McKinsey say that data from four large economies – Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa – shows that “the pandemic’s impact on African banks in 2020 was less severe than initially expected”. Because of the giant role that banks play in economies and societies, this “could signal a faster recovery for the continent”.
South Africa ’s economy was hit the hardest, due to existing weaknesses and strict nationwide lockdowns. Other countries were not as badly affected as initially feared, buoyed by government support programmes including credit, loan-guarantee schemes and delaying repayments.
Many of the banks African Business has spoken to have praised rapid interventions by central banks and ministries of […]