Barclays plans Nigeria entry as route to African banking dominance

Barclays Africa group on Thursday announced its intention to look towards Nigeria as a new market in order to dominate the African banking market.

Maria Ramos, The chief executive of Barclays Africa, during a presentation in South Africa, said the lender aims to enter Nigeria as a new market, as it seeks to raise its share of the African banking market to 12 percent from six percent over the medium term.

After South Africa’s No.2 lender by market value reported a four percent rise in annual profit, thanks to a substantial decline in impairments, normalized diluted headline EPS, the primary measure of profit in South Africa that strips out one-off items, came in at 1,837.7 cents in the year ended December, compared with 1,769.4 a year earlier.

Credit impairments fell 20 percent to R7.0 billion, Barclays Africa said.

Barclays Africa Group Limited is a South African financial services provider, offering personal and business banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking, wealth and investment management as well as bancassurance.

Barclays Africa Group Limited is 14.9 percent owned by Barclays Bank PLC and is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange with current operations in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

By Remilekun Davies