Nairobi among top players in Africa’s private banking sector

NHC engineers construct a sample house using Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) panels on the Agha Khan walk in Nairobi mid last year. Photo/FILE 

 

By PETERSON THIONG’O The EastAfrican

In Summary

• Report shows that Africa is the fastest growing region for private banking globally.
• Private banking generally involves the management of trusts, inheritance and the allocation of client funds. These institutions usually only deal with individuals with over $2 million in investable assets.

Kenya has been ranked as one of the three most promising emerging African markets for private banking.

 

This segment provides banking services to wealthy individuals and their families. The New World Wealth (NWW), a consulting firm that keeps track of global wealth, put Kenya behind Ghana and Nigeria, three countries where there are growing number of super-rich individuals.

The findings show that Africa is the fastest growing region for private banking globally. South Africa, mainly Johannesburg, is the hub for African private banking, with over $50 billion in assets under management.

African high net worth individuals (HNWIs) outside South Africa, the survey found, are increasingly keeping their funds in traditional holding centres such as the UK, Channel Islands, Switzerland and Singapore.

Private banking generally involves the management of trusts, inheritance and the allocation of client funds. These institutions usually only deal with individuals with over $2 million in investable assets.

South Africa-based banks such as Investec, Nedbank, Sanlam and Standard Bank dominate the list as the largest private banks and wealth managers, managing African assets estimated at $74.2 billion. Other players like Barclays (Absa) also control a large share of these assets.

There are just over 160,000 HNWIs in Africa worth about $660 billion, said the consulting firm, adding that an estimated $120 billion of this wealth is tied up in wealth management companies.

“The most promising emerging African markets for private banking are Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. Fast growing countries such as Angola and Zambia are next on the list,” said NWW. “We estimate the African private banking market will grow by 8 per cent per annum over the next 10 years.”