– Nominees for the 2018 African Banker Awards have been announced. This year’s shortlist sees another strong year for banks from Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya. Ecobank, Standard Bank and Standard Chartered, which have a large footprint across the continent, also feature across several categories.
Ecobank will be the hosts of the African Banker Awards cocktail reception prior the awards. The Gala Dinner and Awards presentation will take place at the Paradise Hotel, Busan.
The Awards, which are hosted by African Banker magazine, will be held during the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) at the end of May in Busan, South Korea.
The finalists, selected by an expert judging panel of bankers and business leaders will be announced at the African Banker Awards ceremony which will take place on Wednesday May 22, 2018 .
Omar Ben Yedder, Chair of the Awards Committee, the Group Publisher and Managing Director of IC Publications Group which publishes African Banker, said that he was once again impressed by the quality and breadth of entries this year.
“We saw McKinsey earlier in the year releasing a very positive report analysing the banking landscape in Africa. The entries reaffirm their findings when they say Africa’s banking market are amongst the most exciting in the world.
“The categories that caught my eye were innovation in banking – and this year’s entries reflect the transformative role of fintech and also blockchain technology – as well as deal of the year, which is every year a very competitive category. Equity markets were a little slower in 2017, but we saw some interesting deals on the debt side and also transformative infrastructure financing structures.’
The quality of the entries, and sophistication of the solutions being presented, reflect a buoyant sector in continuous evolution.”
The awards which are held under the high patronage of the African Development Bank and, are sponsored by The African Guarantee Fund, Banco Nacional de Investimento (BNI), Groupe Crédit Agricole du Maroc and the Bank of Industry.
