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Standard Bank is looking to ramp up its business in oil-rich Angola, and has
no plans to slow down in fast-growing Nigeria, the head of Africa’s biggest
bank said on Wednesday.

Jacko Maree told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit that while Standard
Bank aims to keep costs flat this year, it will still focus on expanding its
presence in key African markets.

“We are pushing ahead in Angola, where are starting from scratch
building a bank,” Maree told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit.

Standard acquired regulatory approval to start business in the southern
African nation last year and is concentrating on corporate banking there, said
Maree, speaking at Reuters’ offices in Johannesburg.

Angola, Africa’s second-largest oil producer, is increasingly seen as an
important target for South African banks and corporates, as surging oil prices
have underpinned rapid growth.

Rival Absa Group is also considering moving back into Angola after leaving a
few years ago, CEO Maria Ramos told the Summit on Tuesday.

Absa is the South African lender majority owned by Britain’s Barclays.

Standard Bank is struggling to rein in costs after an aggressive push to
become a top emerging markets lender.

The bank said this month it would scale back its ambitions and would no
longer build or buy domestic businesses in markets outside of Africa.

Maree said Nigeria, Africa’s most populous
nation, remained a top priority.

“We are not going to slow down on our plans in Nigeria, whereas there
are one or two other markets where we’ve just said we’ll have to go a little
bit slower.”

There are more opportunities for the bank’s businesses in Ghana and Nigeria
to cooperate, he said.

The outlook for Kenya was also promising, he said.

“Those would be the four markets that will probably get the most of our
attention and to the extent that we’re rationing capital expenditure, we won’t
be rationing in those countries.”

REUTERS