Business
West African Ecobank set to becoming major player in Africa
Further Consolidation
Ekpe said the African banking sector will continue to see further consolidation, with the field dominated by a small number of very large players.
“That is what is driving our strategy in trying to ensure that we are in the top three in each of the markets that we operate in,” he said.
Ekpe said despite the consolidation and Ecobank’s reach, which could make it attractive, he did not think Ecobank was an acquisition target for others.
“We are not concerned that we would be a target. We think that we have a credible story as an independent institution, we know Africa better than any other bank,” he said.
With over eight million customers, Ecobank had US$5.7 billion in customer loans in its books in the nine months to September 2011, up 18 percent from the previous year, and US$8.9 billion in deposits, up by 22 percent in the same period.
However, it is dwarfed by Africa’s top retail banks such as Standard Bank which had 1.12 trillion rand (US$146 billion) in total assets at the end of 2011, while Absa Bank had 725.96 billion rand (US$94 billion) and FirstRand 697.93 billion rand (US$91 billion).
Ecobank said in a presentation last month that it plans to grow its total assets to US$20 billion and increase return on equity to 25 percent within the next three years.
Ekpe declined to give any forecast for the coming year but said as a rule, the bank was expecting 2012 to be better than last year.
