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By Dr Terence G. Sibiya, Group Managing Executive: Nedbank Africa Regions
As global capital recalibrates, retreating from some regions and reallocating to others, Africa remains underweighted in ways its fundamentals do not justify. The case against the continent is rarely economic. It is framed instead around complexity: regulatory friction, infrastructure gaps, and the difficulty of operating across borders. These constraints are real, but they are solvable. Institutions that recognise this are building defensible positions. With middle-income expansion, rapid urbanisation, and a continent-wide free trade framework beginning to show commercial traction, the opportunity itself is not in question. What has been misread is where the work of unlocking it sits.
Operating across 5 countries in sub-Saharan Africa brings this into sharp focus. What is often priced as risk is, in practice, operational friction. A Zimbabwean manufacturer waiting on a delayed cross-border payment, or a Mozambican supplier unable to confirm a transaction because financing processes stall across multiple systems, is not facing weak demand. These are symptoms of a financial system evolving alongside the trade it is expected to support. The opportunity is real; the constraint is operational. A bank that removes it is not merely a service provider but a growth enabler.
The architecture of Nedbank Africa Regions is designed in response to this reality. Regional integration, rather than geographic presence alone, is the organising principle. That integration enables businesses to operate across borders within a single banking relationship, access trade finance in multiple markets, and connect to infrastructure financing that links economies. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement has created the policy framework for this ambition. But policy alone does not clear payments or structure trade finance. Institutions do. Translating intent into commercial reality requires banks with balance sheet strength, network reach, and operational depth.
It is in this context that Nedbank’s intended acquisition of a controlling stake in NCBA should be understood. Operating across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, NCBA is embedded in one of Africa’s most dynamic growth corridors, supported by a young population, rising trade volumes, and digitally enabled economies.
Expanding access is where strategy becomes tangible and actionable. In 2025, our client base grew, with 40% of clients now main-banked with us. These primary relationships require sustained investment in reach: expanded ATM networks, increased cash-accepting devices, and digital and cardless services in areas with limited physical infrastructure. Each demonstrates that the constraints global capital worries about can be addressed through deliberate, long-term investment.
Where capital is directed reflects conviction. Nedbank Africa Regions’ Sustainable Development Finance portfolio reached R4 billion in 2025, 15% of gross loans and advances, while group-wide sustainable finance totalled R207 billion. These allocations target the productive core of African economies: renewable energy, affordable housing, agricultural value chains, and SMEs. Long-term commercial sustainability and economic resilience are not competing objectives.
The argument for Africa does not need to be louder; it needs to be more precise, more intentional. The gaps that deter global capital are not evidence of weak fundamentals but of systems still being built. That gap is the opportunity. Nedbank Africa Regions has made its position clear through capital deployed, markets entered, and relationships sustained: not a bet placed in hope, but a business built on conviction.
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