Business

Societe Generale Bank ignores Nigeria, plans growth in African countries

Published

7 years ago

December 1, 2018

Societe Generale Bank group has confirmed growth plans for its African operations, in line with its ‘Transform to Grow’ strategic plan with Nigeria conspicuously missing among the 19 African countries.

Recall that the pan African financial institution whose operations in Nigeria was linked to Olusola Saraki, father of the current senate president, Dr. Olusola Saraki, pulled out of the country due to issues bordering on recapitalization of banks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) some years ago.

The bank also announced several initiatives in partnership with international, regional and local clients and institutions in order to meet sustainable development needs in Africa.

The bank said with operations in 19 African countries (Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, and Tunisia), Societe Generale has a unique position in the region that enables it offer customers the expertise and knowledge of an international bank combined with the proximity of its local banking networks.

As announced in its strategic plan, the Group is targeting a compound annual revenue growth rate of 8% and profitability of over 15% by 2020 for its African operations.

In order to deliver on this roadmap, Societe Generale is adapting its structure in Africa as four regional divisions for Africa have been set up in Abidjan, Douala, Algiers and Casablanca, in addition to an organisation and IT system division in Casablanca. Specifically, this will enable the pooling of expertise, standardise processes and improve efficiency.

Relying on the gains of its innovation Labs in Dakar, Tunis and Casablanca, where new banking and non-banking solutions are being developed with start-ups and customers, to deepen the new inclusive growth strategy in Africa.

As part of drive to step up business initiatives to foster sustainable development in Africa, the bank is coming up with growth schemes including Multi-dimensional support for African SMEs, Infrastructure financing, Developing innovative financing solutions and Promoting development through financial inclusion in the continent.

The Bank is also forging ahead with its innovation strategy with the roll-out of YUP. This e-wallet solution was launched in August 2017 and currently has over 300,000 e-wallets opened and almost 4,500 agents. YUP adds around 1,500 new customers per day and is aiming for one million customers and 8,000 agents by 2020.

Explaining why it launched the ‘Grow with Africa’ initiative, Chief Executive Officer of Societe Generale, Frédéric Oudéa, said the bank’s long-standing presence in Africa makes it an essential, well-placed player on the continent to serve as a unifying force around the challenge of responsibility and sustainably contributing to African growth.