Barclays Africa Group is looking to strengthen its position in the continent over the next five years and sees growth opportunities in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector, the head of business coverage said.
Tezza Bryant told Zawya that the lender was now focusing on consolidating capabilities across Africa after Britian's Barclays handed over ownership of all but two of its subsidiaries to its South African unit last year, in exchange for a majority stake in the new combined entity.
"Africa is one of our corporate pillars across the group... I think the story for Africa is growth, not contraction," he said. "From an organic point of view, we are looking to grow across all of our markets."
For business banking, Bryant said there was strong potential in downstream activities from oil and gas, downstream activities from mining, large commercial farming, manufacturing, retail activity and transport and logistics.
Bryant said the SME sector across Africa was rapidly becoming the "heartbeat of most economies", accounting for 50%-60% of the economy of several countries.
"As a landscape, the SME sector is extremely vibrant and fast-moving," he said.
"From a banking point of view, this poses serious challenges for more traditional and conservative banks, because to be able to move with the times and with needs of customers it can be quiet hectic."
Barclays Africa owns operations in Ghana, Botswana, Kenya and Zambia, and runs Egypt and Zimbabwe for its parent company.
"Over time, we are looking at moving those two entities (Egypt and Zimbabwe) also into the Barclays Africa Group. The only reason we had not done that up front is: how do we accurately value the entities at a time when there is turbulence locally," Bryant said.
© Zawya 2014
