There has been a big changing of the guard in terms of Western banking operations in Africa in recent years. Some of the traditional British and French heavyweights have withdrawn since the Covid-19 pandemic but at least one US counterpart has begun to move in.
There is often a retreat from frontier markets during periods of intense global instability but this two-way movement suggests that there has not been a specific crisis of confidence in either Africa in general or the continent's banking sector in particular.
Many European banks are seeking to focus on their core markets, in line with the wider commercial trend of companies in many sectors minimising their risks. High operating costs, high rates of non-performing loans NPLs, regulatory constraints and low profits have all also been blamed for the divestments - with many metrics less attractive in Africa as a whole than in other emerging market regions.
McKinsey Co calculated that profitability in Africa's five biggest banking markets - Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa - fell by 2 between 2016 and 2022.
Basel III regulations have forced banks to strengthen their capital bases, while anti-money laundering and terrorism legislation has forced them to increase oversight of their operations in small markets. International banks seem to have been particularly wary since French bank BNP Paribas was fined a massive 8.9bn by US prosecutors in 2014 for breaking sanctions on Sudan, Cuba and Iran.