Nigerian Newsday

A report by Business Africa has shown that South Africa’s dominance of 20 top Banks in the continent is being challenge by Nigerian banks.

Business Africa, a conglomerate magazine carried out a survey of all commercial banks in Africa, using total assets, market capitalization, profitability and credit risk as some of the benchmarks for assessment.

The report indicated that South Africa’s dominance of the ranking is increasingly being challenged by Nigeria which boast the fastest growing financial industry in emerging market regions.

Four of the 25 Nigerian banks namely, Intercontinental Bank, Union Bank, Zenith International Bank and First Bank were among the 20 top African banks, according to African Business latest ranking.

National Bank of Malawi (NBM) is among 20 top commercial banks in Southern Africa this year, said the report.

The Malawi Stock Exchange listed NBM as number 17 in Southern Africa, with a capital base of about US $43 million and total assets totaling US $261 million. NBM ranked 83 on the list of the top 100 commercial banks in Africa.

The report also said that the buoyant performances of major financial institutions also reflect favourable economic fundamentals as the vast majority of African countries strengthen and diversify their economies.

The list is dominated by South African banks accupying the first five slots with the followings Standard Bank, Ned Bank, Investec, First Rand, African Bank Ltd which account for about 50 percent of the combined top shareholders funds and reserves at US $20.2 billion and 60 percent of aggregate assets at USD 368.6 billion.

Nigeria’s banks dominate the Bank of the year category with Zenith Bank, Access Bank, Intercontinental Bank, GT Bank and First Bank facing competition from other African names including Barclays Mauritius and Standard Bank.