The ECOBANK will be opening its subsidiary in Sao Tome and Principe, a country located in Central Africa.
Abou Kabassi, the regional director for Central Africa, said that with this development, the ECOBANK Group would position as the largest independent banking network in Africa. Noting that, “we are particularly pleased with the prospect of running a subsidiary in Sao Tome and Principe; it continues our expansion in Central Africa and entrenches further our group in Portuguese- speaking Africa.
Explaining that Sao Tome and Principe becomes the 18th country where the ECOBANK Group is existing.
Kabassi stated that out of the five African Portuguese speaking countries, Angola and Mozambique have not yet joined the ECOBANK family but efforts are underway to establish the group in these two countries. In addition to Sao Tome and Principe, the other Portuguese- speaking countries where the ECOBANK Group is present are Cape Verde and Guinea- Bissau.
Joao Gomes, chairman of Group HB one of the leading companies on the Island said “we are happy that ECOBANK Group will be opening a subsidiary in Sao Tome and Principe”.
He intimated that their country, which is an Island, needed such an institution to further integrate them into the rest of Africa while benefiting from services of a banking group known for quality of its products and services.
Sao Tome and Principe is witnessing significant economic development arising from recent discovery oil.
The chief executive officer, Arnold Ekpe, said it signaled further their determination to meet the Pan African strategy they were pursing
He said also that while opening up the Group to meet the challenges of globalization, they remained committed to their African roots and to Africa’s development.
The group is at present in Benin, Burkina- Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone among others.
The group intends to establish subsidiaries in The Gambia and Mauritani, the remaining West Africa countires where it does not have a presence at the moment. It will also extend its reach to various other countries in Central, Eastern and Southern Africa and in the key international centres.
ECOBANK is the leading regional bank in West and Central Africa with an unparallel network of over 305 branches and offices providing wholesale, retail, transaction and investment banking products and services to government and government agencies multinational and multilateral agencies , local companies, small and medium enterprises.
With 20years of experience in managing banks on the continent, ECOBANK is particularly equipped to manage a Pan African banking group compared to other institutions, most of whom are only discovering Africa.
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