The annual Top Banks Survey published by our sister publi- cation African Business reveals a sector that remains remarkably resilient. In dollar terms, African banks have maintained relative stability year-on-year, both in assets (essentially their loan books) and in capital (their fi- nancial strength). Collectively, the Top 100 Banks account for around $1.6trn in assets and $125bn in tier 1 capital, while profit- ability across the board remains robust.

When we add Africa’s leading develop- ment finance institutions (DFIs) to the mix, it adds another $135bn in assets and $40bn in capital – underscoring the grow- ing role these institutions play in catalys- ing growth and regional integration.

However, in several markets – nota- bly Ghana and Nigeria – sharp currency devaluations over the last few years have eroded balance sheets in dollar terms, even as local-currency results have reached record highs. This has prompted central banks to initiate another round of recapi- talisation exercises to ensure that financial institutions retain the firepower to finance critical infrastructure and industry.

By global standards, African banks re- main modest in size. Yet their impact is anything but. When the Dangote Group embarked on building Africa’s largest re- finery, it was local Nigerian and African development banks that stepped up to make it happen.

In Tanzania, institutions such as CRDB Bank are now participating in major fi- nancing rounds for the country’s new hydroelectric projects. These examples show a sector that is maturing – con- fident, capable, and increasingly central to Africa’s growth ambitions.

As public investment tightens, it will fall to the private sector, supported by strong commercial and development banks, to drive the next investment cy- cle. This will require African banks to tap into the continent’s vast pools of domestic capital — estimated by the Af- rica Finance Corporation’s State of Infra- structure Report at around $4trn, though realistically only a fraction of that can be channelled into productive invest- ment – because of regulation and the need for some liquidity for these different asset-holders.

Nonetheless, through guarantees, insurance wraps, blended finance and other innovations, the tools exist to make Africa’s money work harder and smarter.

And it must. To put things in perspec- tive, JP Morgan Chase alone has assets exceeding $4trn and capital of nearly $300bn. The world’s largest bank, China’s ICBC, commands $49trn in assets and $3.6trn in tier-one capital – a reflec- tion of the financial depth that powered China’s extraordinary transformation over the past four decades.

So, what is the true state of African banking today? In this report, we delve into the numbers and the narratives be- hind Africa’s Top 100 Banks. We also explore the extraordinary growth of Afreximbank, whose balance sheet has expanded more than sevenfold to $42bn and whose ambitions now stretch toward $250bn within the next decade – a fit- ting symbol of African banking’s rising ambition and continental reach. n

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