SA banks: betting on Africa
Prospects across the continent are more compelling
Both Nedbank and Barclays Africa are counting on growth in the rest of Africa, as SA’s recovery from years of political wrangling and state capture will take time to fix.Nedbank expects the SA economy to grow 1.6% in 2018, while Barclays Africa predicts growth of 1.4%.But prospects across the continent are more compelling. Nedbank expects the economic recovery in sub-Saharan Africa to gather pace as commodity prices rise and government finances improve. The IMF forecasts average growth of 3.4% in these countries.Last week, Nedbank announced that its combined earnings with pan-African associate Ecobank Transnational Inc for 2017 rose 2.8% to R11.8bn. But excluding the chronically loss-making Ecobank, Nedbank clocked 7.8% growth to R12.8bn.Still, Nedbank CEO Mike Brown says he expects Ecobank to be "the single largest driver of profit growth in 2018". This is partly because Nedbank has cleaned up Ecobank, and its board now includes Nedbank’s corporate and investment bank head Brian K...
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