Standard Chartered exits several markets in Africa through sale of subsidiaries to Access Bank
Standard Chartered is exiting several markets in Africa after agreeing to sell its shareholding in its subsidiaries in Angola, Cameroon, The Gambia and Sierra Leone to Nigeria’s Access Bank for an undisclosed sum.
Standard Chartered agrees deal with Access Bank
The deal will also see Access Bank acquire Standard Chartered’s consumer, private and business banking (CPBB) business in Tanzania.
The bank says the select sale of its operations in Sub-Saharan Africa is in line with its wider global strategy of “achieving operational efficiencies, reducing complexity and driving scale”.
Standard Chartered is setting in motion its plans to improve its profits by shifting its focus to “other areas with significant growth potential”, having confirmed in April last year that it would exit seven countries in Africa and the Middle East (AME).
This includes divesting its operations in Lebanon, Angola, Cameroon, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Jordan, and the exit of its CPBB business in Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania.
Standard Chartered completed the sale of its business in Zimbabwe in June 2022, followed by the sale of its business in Jordan in March of this year.
Now its most recent agreement with Access Bank brings its divestment process to a close, except in Côte d’Ivoire, where discussions for the sale of its CPBB business remain ongoing with potential buyers.
Key stakeholders, including employees and clients of Standard Chartered’s businesses across the five aforementioned countries, will now be provided banking services via Access Bank, which will “work closely” with Standard Chartered over the coming months to see through the transition.
For Access Bank, the transaction is key for the development of its presence across the continent. Standard Chartered says this includes “building a strong global franchise focused on serving as a gateway for payments, investment, and trade within Africa and between Africa and the rest of the world”.
Bridging the gap
The deal was signed at Standard Chartered’s London headquarters by Sunil Kaushal, regional CEO, AME for Standard Chartered and Roosevelt Ogbonna, group managing director for Access Bank.
Commenting on the agreement, Kaushal says it “allows us to redirect resources within the AME region to other areas with significant growth potential, ultimately enabling us to better support our clients”.
For Access Bank, Ogbonna explains how its five-year growth plan will “see us build a world-class class payments gateway leveraging the power of technology and a robust network of relationships across our operating countries”.
With the bank’s recent European expansion and its increasing presence in Africa’s trading corridors, Ogbonna adds that the firm will “bridge the gap between cross-border and domestic transfers across all business segments”.
The sale is expected to be completed over the course of the next 12 months, and will be subject to regulatory approvals of each corresponding country.
Technology
Access Bank is a long-standing customer of Oracle Financial Services – the banking tech vendor’s flagship core banking system, Flexcube, underpins the banking group’s operations across the region. In early 2020, the bank renewed and extended its contract with Oracle.
It is understood the work to migrate the newly acquired businesses from Standard Chartered’s legacy core banking software to Flexcube has begun.
