Nominees for 2018 African Banker awards announced

Nominees for the ‘2018 African Banker Awards’ have been announced with the shortlist showing another strong year for banks from Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya.

Ecobank, Standard Bank and Standard Chartered, which have footprints across the continent, feature in many of the categories.

The awards ceremony, hosted by African Banker Magazine, would be held on May 22, during the annual meeting of the African Development Bank (AfDB) scheduled for the industrial megacity of in Busan, South Korea.

Mr. Oman Ben Yedder, Chairman of the Awards Committee is quoted in a press release made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) saying he was impressed by the quality and breadth of entries.

“We saw McKinsey earlier in the year releasing a very positive report, analysing the banking landscape in Africa.

The entries reaffirm their findings when they say Africa’s banking markets are among the most exciting in the world. The categories that caught my eye were innovation in banking – and this year’s entries reflect the transformative role of fintech and also blockchain technology – as well as deal of the year, which is every year a very competitive category.”

He noted that “equity markets were a little slower in 2017, but we saw some interesting deals on the debt side and also transformative infrastructure financing structures”.

“The quality of the entries, and sophistication of the solutions being presented, reflect a buoyant sector in continuous evolution,” Mr. Yedder added.

The awards which are held under the patronage of the AfDB is sponsored by the African Guarantee Fund, Banco Nacional de Investimento (BNI), Groupe Crédit Agricole du Maroc and the Bank of Industry.

Ecobank would host the cocktail reception prior the presentation.