South Africa’s Standard Bank has announced that it will extend its services to Francophone countries in Africa, citing the investment boom it perceives the sub-region would soon experience
Standard Bank will be leveraging on its presence in Ivory Coast to reach other parts of the French-speaking region as it had opened a representative office in Abidjan, the capital city in 2013 to serve its clients with operations in the region.
“It’s fair to say that we’ll be using the Ivory Coast office as a launchpad into the rest of the region,” said Greg Goeller executive for client coverage Africa at Standard Bank’s corporate and investment banking unit.
Goeller stressed that the bank could benefit from an impending global mining and infrastructure boom which he noted would lead to economic growth in other sectors of the economy.
“Our clients are increasing presence and exposure to West Francophone Africa and we plan to follow them,” he said.
Standard Bank has put plans in motion to enter into Ivory Coast’s fellow member countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) – Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali, Senegal, Niger, Togo and Guinea Bissau. The bank also plans to expand further into six nations that comprise the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), which include the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Chad, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
