Makhtar Diop, a Senegalese national with more than 25 years of development experience, today becomes the new World Bank Vice-President for Africa.  

Diop was previously Country Director for Brazil since 2009 where he managed the World Bank’s largest country program. Prior to joining the Bank, Diop worked at the International Monetary Fund and served as Minister of Finance of Senegal, and as Chair of the West African Monetary Union (WAEMU) Board of Finance…

To further expand its range of convenient banking services, Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Limited has teamed up with Airtel Ghana Limited to introduce mobile savings account.

Named as GTMobile Savings Account, this service offers new or existing GTBank and Airtel customers the opportunity of transacting some normal banking operations through their mobile phones by linking their mobile money wallet to their GTBank account(s).

The service allows users to make deposits into their…

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and The MasterCard Foundation today launched a partnership to increase access to financial services for an estimated 5.3 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. Building on recent economic momentum and stability in many African economies, the project will create new opportunities for economically disadvantaged people to expand businesses, gain access to cost-effective financial services, and manage risk.

Through this new…

Following completion of the final phase of its merger with Intercontinental Bank Ghana (IBG), Access Bank Ghana has finally joined the top echelons of the banking industry.





The bigger Access Bank now ranks among the top-seven in the Ghanaian banking industry by most metrics. and is the most capitalised in terms of paid-up capital which stands at GH¢118.3million.





Total assets have soared to GH¢930million and the bank has an expanded customer-base of 150,000, served…

A new International Finance Corporation and World Bank report shows that the business environment for entrepreneurs in all five economies of the East African Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda) improved in 2010-2011, as the countries implemented critical regulatory reforms.

The report, released on Wednesday, 11 April 2012, compares business regulations and identifies good practices…

Africa-focused private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners is planning to deploy a "significant amount" of capital in fast-growing east Africa and plans to open an office in Kenya later this year, a senior executive said on Tuesday.



Alex-Handra Aime, a Johannesburg-based director at the firm, also told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit that ECP would be announcing a deal in the east African consumer sector as early as next month.



"We really see Kenya leading the path,…

Asia-focused Standard Chartered Plc said it aims to double its branches in Africa to ride a consumer boom which has several years to run in the fast-growing continent.



The consumer business in Africa made up $131 million of the bank's total pretax profit of $6.78 billion in 2011 but earnings rose 27 percent from the previous year on the back of growth in segments like personal loans.



"We have got roughly in Africa about 170 branches and our goal is to double that over the…