There are a total of 763 commercial banks located across the 54 countries that make up the African continent.
Findings by Business Insider Africa show that South Africa and Tanzania have the highest concentration of commercial banks at 51 and 50, respectively. Kenya on the other hand has 42 commercial banks, followed by Egypt with 40, Ghana with 34, Uganda with 24 and Nigeria with 22.
Interestingly, not only does Africa have a lesser number of commercial banks compared to other continents —Asia has at least 1,900, the EU has about 6,000 and the USA alone has more than 4,000 —African banks also have significantly lower valuations compared to their foreign counterparts.
But this is not to say that all the banks in Africa have low valuations. As you will see shortly, some African banks have total assets valued at over $100 billion. Assets basically include all the properties, cash, account receivables and other valuable resources owned by corporations such as banks.
Below are Africa’s largest banks by asset size, comprised mostly of South African and North African banks.
Standard Bank (Stanbank) Group: At $172.9 billion, this South African bank has the largest asset size in Africa.
National Bank of Egypt: This Egyptian bank’s total asset size is valued at $124.9 billion.
Absa Bank: This is another South African bank and it has a total asset size of $87.8 billion.
FirstRand: The third South African bank on the top 10 list has a total asset size of $81.9 billion.
Nedbank Group: This South African bank has a total asset size of $78.6 billion.
Attijariwafa Bank: This Moroccan bank has a total asset size of $63.8 billion.
Banque Misr: This Egyptian bank has a total asset size of $57.9 billion.
Banque Centrale Populair: This is a Moroccan bank and it has an asset size of $49.9 billion.
BMCE Bank Group: This is yet another Moroccan bank and it has an asset size of $37.3 billion.
Investec Bank: Lastly, we have South Africa’s Investec Bank which has an asset size of $29.9 billion.
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