April 2012 Blog Posts (6)

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…

Chinese investments into Ghana through Ecobank have increased by almost 15% over the past year, says Managing Director of the bank, Samuel Ashitey Adjei.





“The number of Chinese businesses, quantum of inflows, deposits and facilities to Chinese companies with local presence have increased by nearly 15%, while foreign exchange inflows and deposits -- virtually non-existent a few years back -- are currently in excess of US$110million,” he said.





Chinese goods have…

Africa as yet is not considered as a high priority geography for the introduction of so called clean technologies,  with some exceptions.

Recent studies put  Africa with investor attention relating to the above at the last place (15%), yet the need for such technologies to drive the betterment of socio –economic condition of the continent is clearly present

Generation of renewable energy can prove both commercially and socio-economically promising for…