Barclays named Best Bank in Ghana

Barclays has been named ‘Best Bank in Ghana’ by the prestigious global news publication Euromoney. Barclays has also been named “Best Investment Bank in Africa” and “Best M&A House in Africa”.

The Euromoney Awards for Excellence are given each year to honour those institutions that have brought the highest levels of service, innovation and expertise to their customers and industries. The awards are widely considered the most prestigious recognition in the financial services industry.

The awards ceremony, held at London’s Natural History Museum on Thursday, 10 July, follows recent recognition as ‘Best Bank in Cash Management’ by Euromoney in 2010 and ‘Best Bank in Ghana’ by The Banker in 2012.

Barclays Ghana Managing Director Patience Akyianu, who was in attendance to receive the award, said the recognition was testimony of the strides the bank was making towards the goal of becoming the bank of choice by delivering better value banking to the Ghana market.

“This Euromoney Award for Excellence recognises our enhanced value proposition to our customers through the introduction of innovative products and services that provide easy banking solutions,” said Ms Akyianu.

Barclays Ghana has operated in Ghana for over 97 years and has an extensive retail and corporate banking network across the country; comprising 60 branches, three Agencies, 10 Premier Life Centres and two Premier Suites. Barclays also has over 150 ATMs spread across the country.

Barclays Ghana continues to benefit from investments made in previous years, which has seen the bank post remarkable growth since 2012. The bank’s steady performance is underpinned by numerous initiatives, including significant enhancement of customer service experience as well as improved operational efficiencies and control environment.

The awards for “Best Investment Bank in Africa” and “Best M&A House in Africa” added to a series of recent accolades confirming Barclays Africa as the leading advisor on debt access and business acquisition on the continent.

“Less than one year after establishing Barclays Africa, these awards symbolise an important milestone in our journey to achieve our ambitions in Africa,” said Maria Ramos, Chief Executive Officer of Barclays Africa Group. “This recognition is a testament to the powerful combination of deep local presence and global expertise that only Barclays can provide on the African continent.”

Barclays Africa has been involved in some of the most high-profile transactions on the African continent in the last 12 months. These include acting as Joint Bookrunner on Steinhoff International’s ?465m convertible bond, Sole Bookrunner on Metair’s ZAR1.5bn ($140m) capital increase and Sole Bookrunner on the ZAR321m ($30m) accelerated placing of Gold Fields’ residual stake in Northam Platinum. Barclays’ ECM team also acted as Joint Advisor and Sole Sponsor on Glencore’s inward listing on the JSE – the largest listing on the JSE in over ten years.

“We are honoured to be recognised as the best investment bank and best M&A investment house in Africa. This recognition confirms our leadership position as Africa’s premier M&A, equity, debt, ratings, project finance, risk solutions and foreign exchange advisor,” said Stephen van Coller, Chief Executive Officer of Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB). “You can expect to see continued innovation and investment in this business over the coming years as we extend our product offering into new markets across Africa.”

He believes that Barclays Africa’s unique product capability across financing, risk management advisory, combined with its global integrated investment banking platform, delivers world-class investment banking services to its customers across Africa and played a role in winning the award; “We are proud that Barclays is one of only a few banks that can provide debt financing locally and internationally, delivering multi-product, bespoke financing and advisory solutions to its clients.”