Why we should bet on intra-Africa trade

Lead Editor

Nation Media Group

Standard Bank Chief Executive Officer of Business and Commercial Banking Bill Blackie talks to Jackson Mutinda about doing business on the continent.

We have focused on Africa and growing in Africa for a long time. Today, business outside of South Africa is as big as our South African business. As a bank, we will continue to invest capital in growing our business. We have a long track record of growing either organically or through acquisition. If you look at Kenya, for example, we did some small acquisitions years ago. We have grown from the ninth-biggest bank up to the sixth-biggest. We will continue to grow and have that momentum behind our business. We also did it in Ghana. We started from scratch in Angola – with just a banking licence. Today, we are the third-biggest bank in that country. The point is that we are an intermediary. We help customers, we intermediate between depositors and lenders and we help the flow of capital in the economy. That is our job.

Why we should bet on intra-Africa trade

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