Maria Ramos, Chief Executive Officer of Absa Bank, South Africa’s third biggest lender, has denied plans to acquire any Nigerian bank.
The South African bank, which had hitherto allowed speculations follow news of its proposed entry into the Nigerian banking space, laid the matter to rest on Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“For us to be in the top three or four would mean us going out and acquiring a Nigerian business,” Ramos told Reuters. “The Nigerian banks are big and expensive and we wouldn’t be looking to do that.”
Despite describing Nigeria’s banking industry as ‘’big and exciting’’, the CEO explained that organic growth was its choice strategy for entering Nigeria as it doesn’t plan on becoming a top lender.
Given Nigeria’s large unbanked population of about 60 million, according to the World Bank, the country’s banking industry has attracted newer competitions, most recently South Africa’s MTN which plans to enter in 2019 as a Payment System bank.
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