Standard Chartered is set to launch a mobile and an online banking platform in Africa. According to the bank’s consumer banking chief for the region, Jaydeep Gupta, the lender seeks to grow in Africa at a time when some European banks are retreating.
Mr Gupta said that StanChart will launch the service for its 1 million customers in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe in the first half of 2016.
According to him, “Africa’s populations are moving quickly to embrace mobile banking and local banks have made material investments on the digital side, so to protect and grow our market share we are investing.” He adds that “StanChart hopes to grow long-term retail banking revenues in Africa by three to four times the pace of the region’s growth in economic output.”
The bank’s strategy stands in contrast to European rivals who have beat a rapid retreat from Africa in recent years, stung by plunging commodities prices and weaknesses in African currencies.
Barclays said on March 1 it was seeking to sell its African business as part of a plan by new Chief Executive Jes Staley to simplify the bank’s structure.
