Egyptian banks poised for African expansion

Egypt’s banking sector is one of the strongest on the continent. In our sister magazine, African Business’ ranking of Top 100 banks, two of the top three are from Egypt (National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr), and CIB comes in at number 9. Of our Top 100, the 25 Egyptian banks make up 29% of the Top 100 total assets and 24% of the Top 100 tier one capital, twice that of Nigerian or Moroccan banks. During a side event at the African Development Bank Annual Meetings in May, African Banker brought together leaders from Egypt to discuss the banking landscape and to see how to leverage the strength of Egyptian banks to contribute more to investment and finance on the continent.

Giving some background, Yehia Abou El-Fotouh, Deputy Chairman of the National Bank of Egypt, said that reforms that began in 2003 had strengthened and diversified the banking sector, allowing for participation by both local and foreign entities. 

There are today 36 banks operating in the country, all of which are well capitalised. This follows the increase in minimum operating capital required by the central bank, currently at E£5bn. The number of banks has reduced from over one hundred in the early 2000s. 

“There are about 120m people living here in Egypt, if you include non-Egyptian nationals, so we believe this is a good number of banks, especially as they are all very strong,” El-Fotouh stressed. Egyptian banks are also expanding into other countries and his own, the National Bank of Egypt, the biggest bank by all metrics in the country, is currently present in Sudan, Dubai, Ethiopia and South Africa..