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Kenya’s finance minister opposes capping of banks’ lending rates

16 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s Treasury opposes a move by parliament to cap commercial lending rates because other measures being put in place will help bring down borrowing costs over time, the finance minister said on Tuesday.

Parliament passed changes to the banking law two weeks ago to cap commercial interest rates at 400 basis points above the central bank’s policy rate, now 10.5 percent. The changes are awaiting presidential approval.

Henry Rotich, the finance minister, told Reuters his ministry preferred to improve the transmission of monetary policy signals to commercial rates and the creation of a central registry for collateral to cut rates, rather than capping them.

“Our approach in this issue is to deal with the root cause of why interest rates are where they are in Kenya,” he said.

The average lending rate was 18.2 percent last month, compared with 15.8 percent in July last year, the central bank said. The central bank cut its policy rate to 10.5 percent in May, having left it at 11.5 percent since July 2015.

Rotich said they were working to improve the Kenya Banks Reference Rate (KBRR) to ensure banks were pricing loans correctly.

Introduced by the government in 2014 to help rein in high costs of loans by offering a benchmark for banks to price their loans, the KBRR has been criticised widely for failing to help bring down interest rates.

“There is more room for refining the KBRR and banks are working on ensuring that the margins reflect the best pricing of loans,” the minister said without offering details.

He said a law to establish a central registry of collateral would be taken to parliament soon, enabling borrowers to transfer their loans between different banks easily and cutting costs of securing collateral once it is passed.

“We think these measures are going to help to bring down rates over a period of time,” Rotich said.

Kenyan banks have reported rising profits in the last decade, attracting foreign investors. Rotich said the growth of the sector had helped to boost the share of the population with access to formal financial services to 70 percent.

“We don’t want to rock that boat … Anything that reverses that would not be a good way to go,” he said.

The central bank also opposes capping interest rates saying it could restrict lending. It however wants banks to lower their rates.

Rotich said the government’s budget deficit for the fiscal year starting last month would be lower than the 9.3 percent approved by parliament, adding they would also raise money in capital markets abroad to avoid putting pressure on local rates by borrowing too much in the domestic market.

“Our strategy is to diversify our sources of funding so that we don’t borrow heavily domestically,” the minister said.

(By Duncan Miriri, Editing by Richard Balmforth)

 

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Congo copper output falls 14% in H1 on lower prices

16 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

KINSHASA (Reuters) – Copper output in Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s top producer, fell 14 percent in the first half of 2016 to 466,250 tonnes as a global price slump led some mines to suspend production, the central bank said on Tuesday.

The decline is hammering the economy of the country, which derives about 95 percent of its export earnings from extractive industries.

In June, the government slashed its budget by 22 percent in response to low commodity revenues.

Congo, among the world’s top copper producers, produced 990,000 tonnes of the metal in 2015, down from 1.03 million tonnes the year before.

In a weekly report, the central bank also said production of cobalt, the metal used in lithium-ion batteries and of which Congo is the world’s leading producer, slid by 13 percent to 35,267 tonnes over the same period.

Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange lost 25 percent of its value in 2015 and has recovered only slightly this year, while cobalt prices are also down about 14 percent from this time last year.

Glencore’s Katanga unit, one of the country’s largest copper and cobalt producers, announced an 18-month suspension of operations last September and thousands of jobs have been lost in the sector since then as companies cut costs.

 

(Reporting by Aaron Ross; editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Jason Neely)

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A report from The South African Property Owners Association’s 2016 Convention

16 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

SAPOA Awards

The South African Property Owners Association celebrated its 50th anniversary at its annual convention this year, with a renewed focus on development.

The South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) is in its 50th year of existence, and its annual convention celebrated this landmark moment. However, while celebration of half a century’s existence was notable, so was a focus on the challenges that investors face in newly emerging markets. South Africa has changed almost immeasurably in the past 50 years, and trying to create an environment that encourages positive investments, both domestically and abroad, was key to most speakers.

Expanding African Investment

A focal point of the SOPOA convention was how to encourage foreign investors to embrace opportunities within Africa, as the body aims to create growth that will reward South Africa’s own developers and investors. The convention was held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, where leading figures in property development, from journalists to construction groups, met to exchange ideas on furthering the expansion of property ventures in Africa.

While much of any planned expansion will be within South Africa, many experts are hoping to encourage their own developers, and those from outside Africa, to see exciting opportunities across the continent. Experts agreed that investors needed to recognize that African property investment was a long-term game, and to treat the markets with the same respect that they would in America or Europe.

Bronwyn Corbett, the head of the pan-African property group Mara Delta, explained that patience was key as she said, “Many South African investors don’t actually know what happens on the ground in Africa and may expect things to happen more quickly.”

Mara Delta holds a property portfolio worth $430 million that spans 6 African nations, from as far north as Morocco to as southerly as Mozambique. Companies like Mara Delta offer South African investors opportunities to invest in these outside markets, and in turn help bolster the growth of property value within the nations where their holdings lie. The evidence suggests that a rising number of investors are seeing prospects in Africa. Ian Anderson, the chief investment officer at Grindrod Asset Management, told SAPOA listeners that a mounting number of companies were asking about openings within African property.

Likewise, South Africa’s largest real estate investment trust, Growthpoint Properties, is already working alongside Investec to find new assets outside of South Africa, and yet still within the continent.

The challenges faced

While a positive approach was extolled, any objective discussion of the continent’s opportunities had to address the difficulties that could be faced. By openly discussing some of the problems and concerns around property investment within Africa, organizers hope to find solutions, and assuage investor concerns.

One of the main problems discussed was that many investors felt concern over the varied currencies of Africa. Africa uses more than 40 difference currencies, and the process of exchanging these can be time consuming. In addition, many African banks suffer from a slower speed of service that can give investors cold feet.

Corbett and others also discussed concerns over limited debt facilities within some African markets, but she insisted that companies like Mara Delta existed to relieve investors of the need to understand every market’s nuances.

Moreover, despite the issues that came up, the tone from Corbett was one of optimism, as she stated, “Each African country is different. Each is a challenge, and it wouldn’t be worth doing this if it wasn’t a challenge.”

The Convention and its awards

SAPOA celebrated its 50th anniversary with a grand convention, which offered attendees the opportunity to enjoy golf courses and a banquet, alongside the more serious nature of the talks and presentations. As with all of SAPOA’s conventions there was also an awards ceremony to recognize outstanding performers within property.

Some of the most notable awards included the Mall of the South for best retail development, Google Head Office Building for the Overall Green Award, Mitchell’s Plain Hospital for the Overall Transformation Award, and Frank’s Place for the best residential development.

The most prestigious award for the 2016 SAPOA Property Development Awards in Innovative Excellence went to Lion Match Company.

As many financial markets face uncertain times, the experts at SAPOA felt confident that property will provide stable investments for many people, and Africa can offer an exciting and prosperous opportunity for those willing to invest.

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South Africa Looks to Modern Mining for Youth Empowerment

15 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

youth in mining summit

South Africa’s mining industry to make use of non-traditional programs to empower youth

Even in 2016, the term “mining” brings to mind images of dust-covered coal miners with pickaxes. South Africa is rolling out a youth empowerment program in urban mining through its state-run mining and metallurgical entity, Mintek, that couldn’t be more different. Contrary to what its name suggests, urban mining does not involve any actual resource extraction. Urban mining is the slightly more glamorous and modern-day version of dumpster diving: this field re-appropriates pre-existing materials, such as recycled glass, into commercially viable semi-luxury goods.

At a recent South African conference, the Youth Mining Summit, government officials spoke about their desire to empower South Africa’s youth to look into the mining sector for jobs. The Youth Mining Summit occurred in mid-June, over the 40th anniversary of the infamous SOWETO Uprisings. To commemorate the historic youth uprising, South Africa dedicates each June to focus on youth development issues. This year, Deputy Director General of Mineral Regulation Joel Raphaela discussed the government’s efforts to encourage more young South Africans to go into the mining industry: “We continue to reach the youth through the department Learner Week Programs, where we create mining awareness by organizing mine visits around the country.” This sort of exposure, Raphaela hopes, will show young people from diverse backgrounds and educational qualifications that there are numerous job opportunities within the mining sector.

One Man’s Waste

Mintek Small Scale Mining & Beneficiation Program

Mintek Small Scale Mining & Beneficiation Program

An important component of this effort is the training and mentorship opportunities available to interested youth. Since 1934, Mintek has been South Africa’s leading mining and metallurgical research and development center. As South Africa begins to put a more visible emphasis upon black empowerment, Mintek is an integral part of a youth development program that looks to train young people in marketable metallurgy. Mintek emphasizes its newly branded urban mining program as the future for sustainable employment. A simple example of urban mining is the creation of glass beads from recycled bottles: Mintek provides training in all of the skills needed to turn glass bottles into beautiful jewelry with everything from different crushing techniques to the variety of ways to melt and re-purpose crushed glass. According to Mintek, “Urban mining presents numerous opportunities for young people to use urban waste to manufacture saleable products, without necessarily having a higher education qualification. The glass bead manufacturing process is a great example of this.”

Last year, Mintek provided 148 youth with practical training in partnership with the Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA), and the Department of Science and Technology. Thirty-six of these graduates have been placed in foundries across the country, where they continue to grow their theoretical and practical skill sets in the metallurgical field. Unemployed graduates from previously disadvantaged groups have the opportunity to receive further training in the field of occupational hygiene, surveying, mining, electrical and mechanical engineering. Not only is Mintek providing hands-on training, but it is working with local governments to set up training centers in the Northern Cape. Two such centers were established in Upington and Prieska, where students can get practical training for making jewelry from locally-mined semi-precious stones.

A Diamond in the Rough

South Africa’s mining stretches beyond metallurgy and re-appropriation of urban waste to the most glittering of all gems: diamonds. After the 2015 launch of the South African Young Diamond Beneficiators Guild, a collective of predominantly black-owned small and emerging diamond manufacturers, young adults were accepted into training programs to learn the cutting and polishing techniques employed to refine rough diamonds. 25 of the young trainees were accepted into a two-year training program based in Italy, but will also travel to Switzerland to learn about the technical art of watchmaking.

A watchmaking teaching curriculum is currently being developed in South Africa. Once it is completed and through the approval process, South Africa would be able to teach the special skill set for the first time in its history.

Digging Deep to Lift Up Youth

All of these initiatives have the same goal: to empower youth with marketable skills that will not only provide them with sustainable income, but will allow them to participate in the global economy. Training programs are blossoming in everything from urban mining to watchmaking, and it seems that this is only the beginning. As Raphaela said, the “economic empowerment of young people is not an option, but a national imperative.”

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Engie and Thales will design the Dakar Regional Express railway line

13 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

rail track

The French companies Engie and Thales have won the design contract for Senegal’s new Dakar Regional Express Railway project.

The French companies Engie and Thales were recently announced as the winners of the lucrative design contract for Senegal’s vaunted new Dakar Regional Express railway line. The two companies are well established within Africa, but had to fight off stiff competition from several other bids in order to secure the contract with Senegal’s government. The announcement of their successful bids was made on July 27th by APIX, the Senegalese Agency for Investment Promotion and Public works, and the lucrative deal is valued at around $251 million.

The route ahead

The Dakar Regional Express Railway project was first announced in 2014, as part of the Senegalese government’s “Emerging Senegal” program, which aims to boost the nation’s economic and social development. The railway line will connect Senegal’s capital city, Dakar, with the new international airport, Blaise Diagne, and the city of Diamniadio.

The first part of the project will see the construction of the longest section of 36 km between Dakar and Diamniadio. After this, an additional 15 km of line will be built between Diamniadio and the new Blaise Diagne international airport.

The total 55 km distance, between Dakar and the airport, will be covered in around 45 minutes, with 14 stations en-route, and the trains will reach speeds of 160 km/h. The service is also intended to have 3 lines, with 2 for standard passenger trains, and the other for freight transport.

Construction is expected to begin in the final quarter of this year, and to take 26 months, meaning that trains should begin service at the end of 2018. By the end of 2019, the government expects the service to have carried around 115,000 passengers.

The construction work and civil engineering will be carried out by a French, Senegalese and Turkish consortium. The companies making up the consortium are the local Senegalese group CSE, France’s Eiffage Company, and Turkey’s Yapi Merkezi. However, the design and integration of the electrics and communications, alongside overall project management is what has fallen to Engie and Thales.

Engie and Thales the winning duo

Engie and Thales both have a long-standing involvement in African projects. Engie, formerly known as GDF Suez, is a renowned company within the field of electrical power, and has designed and developed renewable energy projects in Africa for 50 years. Engie’s expertise in electrical energy and energy efficiency is evidently pertinent to the Dakar rail project, and its existing presence in Africa will have also aided its bid. The company employs 154,950 people, and had a turnover of over $77.8 billion in 2015.

Likewise, Thales is a company with a recognized body of work within Africa, having worked across multiple fields around the continent for 30 years. However, its know-how, in rail signaling and telecommunications in land transport, is clearly of most significance to the decision to grant the group the dual contract. Thales is already involved in the rail industry in 5 African nations, and employs 62,000 people across 56 countries, with a turnover of $15.6 billion last year.

While the exact split of the $251 million contract between the 2 French corporations is not known, they released a joint statement saying, “Engie and Thales have been selected…for the design and construction of infrastructures and systems of the new Dakar Regional Express Train, for a contract in the amount of 225 million euros”

The teams’ responsibilities

Engie and Thales will now be responsible for multiple aspects of the Dakar Regional Express’ design and development. Aside from designing the systems and providing management, Engie and Thales are also responsible for integrating all aspects of the rail service.

One of the major areas in which their combined expertise will be utilized is the management of the fiber-optic communications network that will connect the trains to the command center. Train signaling, power supply, and providing technical supervision for all train station equipment are also core responsibilities that the French companies have.

Engie and Thales won the contract in the face of strong bids from various competitors, including two Chinese companies, China Railway Construction Company and China Road & Bridge Corporation.

Senegal’s government will be hoping that the combined proficiency of the French duo will ensure that a major part of their bold “Emerging Senegal” project will soon be a reality.

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Old Mutual to invest in Nigerian real estate, agriculture

12 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

ABUJA (Reuters) – Anglo-South African financial services firm Old Mutual and Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund on Friday signed agreements to set up two funds to invest in real estate and agriculture in Africa’s most populous nation.

Old Mutual and Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) said they would jointly raise a $500 million fund to invest in real estate and another $200 million to spend on agriculture projects in Nigeria.

The West African nation is in the middle of its worst crisis in decades as a slump in oil revenues hammers public finances and the naira. Gross domestic product shrank in the first quarter and the central bank governor has said a recession is likely.

Chief executive of NSIA, Uche Orji, said both parties will each commit $100 million as initial commitment for the real estate fund and $50 million for the agriculture fund.

“We are looking at office towers, commercial real estate,” Orji said. “We are investing equity in agriculture. We are looking at farming with emphasis on export.”

Poor infrastructure and access to capital is a major bottleneck to growth in Nigeria, which has made diversifying its revenue base and reducing a huge import bill its top priority.

“The most important thing is infrastructure. The problem is that its cheaper to move goods from China to Lagos, than move it from Kano to Lagos and that’s because we don’t have the infrastructure,” Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said.

Nigeria established the Sovereign Investment Authority (SIA) in 2011 with $1 billion of seed capital in an effort to manage oil export revenues.

The new funds, which will stay invested for up to 12-years, will target returns of around 20 percent, Hywel George, chief investment officer at Old Mutual said.

A successful real estate investment in Nigeria can earn an returns as high as 30-35 percent, while rental income yields in cities such as Lagos and Abuja can easily reach 10 percent, developers and estate agents say.

However, navigating through opaque land laws, corruption, a lack of development expertise and financing, a dearth of mortgages and high building costs will take courage and influential local partners.

 

(By Chijioke Ohuocha. Editing by Ulf Laessing and William Hardy)

 

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S.Africa’s power utility Eskom says signs wage deal with unions

12 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s state-owned power utility Eskom said on Friday it had signed a wage deal with unions after lengthy overnight talks, and urged unionised staff who have been on strike since Monday to resume work.

Eskom said in a statement it had signed a two-year wage deal with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Solidarity union, granting the lowest paid workers increases of 10 percent and other employees 8.5 percent.

Eskom was previously offering pay increases of 7 to 9 percent while the NUM, whose members were on strike, had on Tuesday lowered its wage demand to between 8.5 to 10 percent from 12 to 13 percent.

The utility also said the NUM was in the process of getting all its members to return to work and end the strike.

Officials at the NUM could not confirm that they would call off the strike, but said they would first present the new wage offer by Eskom to members, who make up about a third of the workforce at the utility.

The Solidarity union, whose members were not on strike, said its members had accepted Eskom’s latest offer.

The metalworkers union NUMSA, whose members had also not joined the strike, had yet to sign the deal, but accepted the offer in principle, Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said.

“NUM is currently in the process of telling its members to come back to work. We are expecting everything to be back to normal by Monday,” Phasiwe said.

The company, the sole power provider in Africa’s most industrialised country, has said that the strike had so far not affected electricity supplies.

The NUM said its members would have to give a green light to the latest pay offer by Eskom.

“There is a revised offer that is tabled by Eskom in the early hours of this morning, around 3 am. We can’t reveal it because we need to take it back to our members,” said NUM’s spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu.

The dispute is the latest problem to beset Eskom, which has struggled to meet power demand in South Africa due to its aging power plants and grid. However, it has managed a year without rolling blackouts that have hurt the economy in the past.

(Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg and TJ Strydom; Editing by James Macharia)

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Stock Talk: South Africa’s Newest Market

12 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

Johannesburg Stock Exchange

South African company Zar X has been given license to open a new stock exchange market, the first new market in more than 100 years.

For many in Africa, the world of stock exchange and brokerage is an elite realm for the wealthy and well educated. The outside fees alone, paid to brokers and investment firms, are enough to deter a huge proportion of the world’s population, not to mention the financial literacy required to make informed trades. In developing countries, where stock exchanges may be inaccessible for all but a small portion of the population, this is particularly true. Many stock exchanges are centuries old. South African company Zar X is changing the scene: as of September 1st, they are expected to launch trading in a low-barrier, low-risk market for the first time in the country’s history. This exciting development is expected to open up the world of stocks to a much wider demographic, enabling less-wealthy South Africans to participate in the global economic market.

Taking Stock

In March of this year, Zar X was granted a stock exchange license by the Financial Service Board, the first company to have received one in more than a century. Founder and CEO Etienne Nel says that Zar X’s “initial focus will be on low-hanging fruit – the companies that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) cannot list, like the traditional over-the-counter market and the related shares around this market.” For the last 120 odd years, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), South Africa’s first and previously only stock exchange, has offered T+5 and T+3 settlements, or trades that take five or three days, respectively, to clear into an investor’s account.  Zar X will be the only exchange to offer T+0 settlements, or same day settlements.

The more complex trades (T+5 and T+3)  will still be offered on the JSE, but for restricted trades and mid-size company listings (companies worth between US $36million and US $360million), Zar X will be the go-to listing. These companies have different rules for listing shares than larger companies, and are therefore more accessible for individuals without investment experience. Zar X “will offer simple, fast and affordable platforms for corporate listings and share trading, with strong focus on the market in restricted equity offerings, primarily black empowerment securities.”

An Exchange for the Everyman

According to their website, “ZAR X is a platform that lets everyday South Africans transact shares quickly, cheaply and conveniently, even if they have never formally invested money or opened a bank account before.” For the millions of South Africans without bank accounts, this is a potentially life-changing opportunity. Zar X will offer businesses a flexible, transparent and affordable way to list their restricted or limited share offerings through its three sections: a main board for company listings, an “over-the-counter” stock trading business, and an investment products market. Zar X differs from the JSE for a variety of reasons, including that it will allow shareholders to invest without custody fees. Custody fees are one of the barriers to people from lower-income households to enter the stock market: these are fees charged by the individual investor for handling a clients’ money. Since Zar X allows investors to work directly in the market, there will be no broker to collect these fees. This, along with the innovative trading and company listing regulations, is a game-changing move by Zar X. It has the potential to make trading accessible for millions of people who were previously prevented from participating.

Trading for Empowerment

Zar X is expected to have a very positive impact upon South Africans for a variety of reasons. This new opening in the market will allow a greater diversity of tradeable shares, thus increasing competition between companies that were previously without representation. Aside from the numerous economic impacts, Zar X stands to have quite a social impact as well. Nel was inspired to create Zar X out of a desire to open up the stock market to a wider group of people. This project will not only increase financial literacy for South Africans with little to no financial experience, but may also be an important empowerment project for South Africa’s working class. Financial autonomy is a large component of self-confidence, and by increasing the scope of representation within the global market, South Africans will be able to view themselves as financially capable global citizens.

 

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Strikes unlikely to curb Kenya tea output

11 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Latest Updates from Reuters

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Several weeks of strikes by tea pickers in Kenya’s biggest estates in June and July are unlikely to disrupt production enough to warrant a change to the forecast for the year, the agriculture industry regulator said on Thursday.

Tea pickers were awarded a 30 percent pay increase by a court in June but went on strike when tea estate owners refused to pay, saying it would drive up costs and deter investment.

Tens of thousands of pickers in the major growing regions of Nandi and Kericho went on strike in protest. Pickers have since returned to work after the Labour Ministry brokered a deal allowing the award to be implemented in two phases.

The East African nation, the world’s No. 1 exporter of black tea, expects output to jump to as much as 450 million kg this year, thanks to good rainfall, from 399 million in 2015. Tea is one of Kenya’s top foreign-exchange earners.

“There is no change to the output forecast,” Alfred Busolo, acting director-general of the Agricultural, Fisheries and Food Authority told Reuters, adding that the impact of the stoppages was “minimal”.

The government is working to remove numerous levies and taxes on the tea industry to make its exports more competitive.

The labour stoppages had mainly affected big tea estates in the Rift Valley region, which account for 40 percent of production. The rest comes from small-scale farms.

 

 

(Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Edmund Blair and Dale Hudson)

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Standard Bank joins rush to mobile banking

11 August 2016 Comments (0) Africa, Business, Featured

Africa mobile banking

The largest bank on the continent has launched a pan-African application in five countries that enables financial transactions across borders.

The largest bank on the continent is rolling out a pan-African banking application as it shifts its business toward mobile.

The action by Standard Bank – African’s largest bank by assets – reflects a growing trend of financial institutions moving to mobile financial services that so far have been dominated by telecoms.

Standard’s mobile banking has been doubling year over year, according to Peter Schlebusch, the bank’s chief executive for personal and business banking.

Standard has launched the mobile application in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Uganda and Ghana and plans to launch in Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Zambia later this year.

The app reflects a significant investment by the Johannesburg-based bank to give customers convenient access to their accounts regardless of their location, a bank representative said.

Transactions can cross borders

Standard Bank app

Standard Bank app

Adrian Vermooten, head of Africa Customer Channels for Standard Bank, said the app is one of the first in Africa that enables transactions across borders.

The app takes advantage of sophisticated smartphone technology, including biometrics. In the future, features including real time payments, online account opening and other services for individual consumers or businesses will be added to the app.

The app reflects the bank’s goal of becoming a “universal bank” for Africa, Vermooten said. The bank, with global assets of about $165 billion, operates in 20 markets across the continent.

“We’re trying to be really focused on Africa and take out the friction of dealing in Africa,” Schlebusch told Forbes, noting that the new app will enable customers to execute transactions across borders.

“The pan-African app will enable customers to view the whole bank regardless of their geography or what kind of customer they are,” he said.

ATM transactions decline

The bank last year processed more than 800 million transactions worth nearly $30 billion through its banking application while in-person branch and ATM transactions shrunk to less than 5 percent of all transactions, Schlebusch said.

Standard’s experience underscores two shifts taking place on the continent. One is the rapid trend toward consumer use of mobile technology for financial transactions. The other is the move by banks for a share of the market previously dominated by telecommunications companies.

In 2014, mobile financial transactions generated $656 million in revenue in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the research firm Frost and Sullivan ICT. That amount will nearly double to $1.3 billion by 2019, Frost and Sullivan predicted.

According to the World Bank, growth in mobile banking in Africa has outpaced other regions in which it operates. Sub-Saharan Africa was the only region in which the World Bank operates where more than 10 percent of adults have a mobile banking account.

Meanwhile, one expert said that African banks are taking the lead globally in ensuring security of mobile financial transactions.

Schalk Nolte, chief executive officer of Entersekt, said African banks are placing security at the center of the app will add mobile development, setting an example that other banks can follow.

Globally, banks have led development of mobile banking. But in Africa, telecoms have been the major players in mobile financial transactions because far more Africans have mobile phones than have bank accounts.

More phones than bank accounts

According to the World Bank, 40 percent of Africa’s 1.4 billion residents have a mobile phone while less than 25 percent of the population has a bank account.

But banks like Standard are working to change that. A top East African bank announced plans to enter the market while banks in Cameroon and Mali are also trying to tap into the continent’s rush to electronic payments.

In Kenya, Equity Bank, the country’s largest in terms of number of customers, is providing customers with SIM card overlays that enable them to securely access their accounts on their phones.

In Nigeria, GT Bank is partnering with Etisalat Nigeria, one of the country’s larger mobile operators, to create a savings account that can be opened on a mobile phone.

Pan-African Ecobank is partnering with the telecom Orange Cameroon to enable customers to transfer money between the two services. The companies have launched the service in Cameroon and Mali and expect to offer it to Ivory Coast, Guinea Conakry and Niger in the future.

South Africa presents a contrasting example. In that country, where 75 percent of the population has a bank account, M-Pesa failed to take hold and folded its operations earlier this year.

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