Africa

The financial system in Africa varies from the highly developed banking institutions of South Africa and Nigeria to the barely organized banking sector of South Sudan, the world’s newest country.

In our 21st annual survey, Global Finance identifies the best banks in 150 countries and eight regions. The winners are not always the biggest banks, but rather, the best—those with the qualities that corporations should look for when choosing a bank.

ANNUAL AWARDS: HIGH-OCTANE YEAR Global investment banks will face a tremendous challenge as they strive to continue running their underwriting businesses at the elevated levels they reached in 2013. Many of the largest banks on Wall Street reaped a windfall ...

NEWSMAKERS By Efraim Chalamish When central bank governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi announced in February that $20 billion in Nigerian oil revenues were missing from the till as a result of corruption, president Goodluck Jonathan responded promptly—by sacking Sanusi. Now not ...

Iceland’s Reykjavik Geothermal will launch a $2 billion project in July to build a power plant on an imploded volcano in Ethiopia’s Rift Valley. The plant, slated to begin operations by 2020, will have a generation capacity of 500 megawatts of electricity.

Mozambique’s future rests on monetizing reserves of coal, natural gas, titanium and other minerals.

MOVING FORWARD IN FITS AND STARTS By Valentina Pasquali Angola is making all the right moves when it comes to attracting inter-national investment and diversifying its economy beyond oil. However, corruption and bureaucracy still present challenges for investors. Promise and ...

LOCATION: LONDON, UK Global Finance held its Best Trade Finance Banks 2014 ceremony during the BAFT global annual meeting in London in January. Corporate and financial leaders from around the world were present to accept their awards and honor other ...

Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe is one of Africa’s last old-school dictators. But he’s proving that he may be able to change—for the better. In the decade ending in 2008, Zimbabwe’s economy shrank at an annual rate of 6.1%. Then, in 2009, the country adopted the US dollar. Since then, growth has averaged nearly 8% per year...

GOLD STANDARD By Rebecca Brace and Anita Hawser Global Finance presents the winners of its annual Best Treasury & Cash Management Providers awards. Global multinational corporates may have come out of the 2008 global financial crisis better off than the ...

STAR PERFORMERS By Anita Hawser Over the past six years transaction banking has been one of the best performers in an otherwise lackluster banking sector. Even in the midst of a global financial crisis, suppliers and salaries still need to ...

FRONTIER MARKETS REPORT
​Zambia’s strong and stable economic expansion is enticing firms looking to build their African presence. Among frontier markets in sub-Saharan Africa, the country stands out for its stable economy and its long record of strong growth. These factors have helped attract investors to this copper-rich, landlocked nation of 14 million people..

NEWSMAKERS By Erik Heinrich Zimbabwe’s Strive Masiyiwa is a man who knows a thing or two about setting lofty goals and achieving them. The wireless communications tycoon is already his country’s richest man and only billionaire, but his latest business ...

MILESTONES By Tiziana Barghini A grand plan to transform a vast area round the Suez Canal—one of the world’s longest and oldest waterways, linking the Mediterranean and Red Seas—into a trading and industrial center could finally see the light of ...

MILESTONES   By Tiziana Barghini   Twenty-two years after the Maastricht Treaty—which paved the way for Europe’s economic and monetary union—was signed, five Eastern African countries have inked a similar pact for an area that is much smaller than the ...

  “A $30 decline in oil price over the baseline level shows that, among developing regions, Sub-Saharan Africa is the most impacted, with GDP growth declining by some 1.3 percentage points and current account balances worsening by 4.5 percentage points ...

SIDESTEPPING THE BOOM AND BUST   By Tiziana Barghini   Global Finance sat down with Francisco Ferreira, chief economist, Africa, at the World Bank, to discuss the continent’s economic outlook. The pace of growth in Africa hovered around an impressive ...

REGIONAL FOCUS   By Dan Keeler   Perceptions of poverty and corruption have long dogged sub-Saharan African countries looking for investment. But as growing interest in Africa’s economies has morphed into a frenzy of investment, a new perception gap is ...

Africa continues to outperform other emerging markets, but not all of its 54 countries are moving at the same pace when it comes to political, economic and social developments.

As African countries increasingly appear on investors’ radars, the world’s newest country, South Sudan, is forging ahead with its drive to attract foreign investment.