Bank of Africa

Bank of Africa Group

Bank of Africa head office in Casablanca, in 2008 still under BMCE brand identity
Company type	Private
Traded as	CSE: 1100
Industry	Financial services
Founded	1959
Headquarters	Casablanca, Morocco
Key people	Othman Benjelloun Group Chairman & CEO
Products	Credit cards, consumer banking, corporate banking, finance and insurance, investment banking, mortgage loans, private banking, private equity, savings, securities, asset management, wealth management
Net income	€ 76 million (2017)
Total assets	€ 9.406 billion (2021)
Total equity	€ 746 million (2016)
Number of employees	5655 (2016)
Website	bankofafrica.ma

Bank of Africa (BOA) is an international financial services group headquartered in Casablanca, Morocco. It was formed by the 2010 acquisition of Bank of Africa (est. 1982 in Mali) by the Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur (BMCE, Arabic: البنك المغربي للتجارة الخارجية, lit. 'Moroccan Bank of Foreign Trade', est. 1959), following which BMCE rebranded itself as Bank of Africa in 2020. The BMCE brand survives in the line "BMCE Group" which was incorporated in the BOA brand identity.

BOA's two main shareholders are Moroccan financier Othman Benjelloun and French bank Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, who together hold slightly over half of the bank's equity capital. BOA is listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange.

As of 2024, BOA was the third-largest bank in Morocco, behind market leader Attijariwafa Bank and the cooperative BCP Group.

History

Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur

BMCE logo in 2015

At the time of Moroccan independence, the new country's banking system was dominated by French banks, namely the Banque Commerciale du Maroc controlled by Crédit Industriel et Commercial and the local operations of Banque Nationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie, Crédit Lyonnais, and Société Générale as well as Algeria-centric Compagnie Algérienne and Crédit Foncier d'Algérie et de Tunisie (CFAT). The creation of BMCE in 1959 was the first step in a decades-long process, known locally as marocanisation, of reduction of that colonial legacy.

BMCE was established in 1959 as a government-owned commercial entity and in 1962 opened its capital to foreign strategic investors, the main one being Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI) which had been present in Morocco since 1928 and brought BMCE its network of branches in the country. By late 1962, the foreign shareholders included BCI (16.7 percent), Mouton Roger Group (12.5 percent), Banco di Roma, Bank of America, Bank of West Africa (BWA), Banque Française du Commerce Extérieur, Commerzbank, and Skandinaviska Banken (2.8 percent each); private Moroccan shareholders held an additional 4.2 percent, while the Moroccan government retaining 50 percent. In 1965 BWA, acquired that year by Standard Bank, transferred to BMCE its branch in Tangier.

In 1971, BMCE took over the bulk of the Société de Banque du Maghreb (SBM), the Moroccan subsidiary of the former CFAT, while Société Générale Morocco acquired about a fifth of the SBM's activity. BMCE then opened its first overseas branch in Paris in 1972, and listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange in 1974. In 1975, it absorbed the Banco Español en Marruecos, headquartered in Tétouan, and in 1989 opened BMCE International in Madrid, which in 1993 became part of a fully-fledged Spanish subsidiary.

In 1989, it took a minority stake in the public development bank of Mali, the first expansion of a Moroccan bank into sub-Saharan Africa. In 1995, it was privatized and became property of Othman Benjelloun through his controlling ownership of insurer Royale marocaine d'assurance.

Bank of Africa

Bank of Africa was established in late 1982, in Bamako, Mali, by local businesspeople. It was formed to address the scarcity of banking services for local businesses and individuals, which was prevalent not only in Mali at that time, but across most of Francophone West Africa. This initial effort was without any external financial backing. The success of BOA Mali, led to the establishment of African Financial Holdings (AFH), as the holding company for BOA Mali in 1988. The objectives of AFH were to promote the establishment of banking subsidiaries across Africa, with local capital participation as a key component and to offer both management, technical support as well as equity participation in these new banking subsidiaries.

Starting in 1990 with BOA Benin, the BOA group started opening subsidiaries across the continent, initially in Francophone countries but eventually in Anglophone Africa, starting with BOA Kenya in 2004. To increase their capital base, AFH took on new investors including the PROPARCO, a division of the French Development Agency, Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) and Natexis (later Natixis) of France.

Merger and aftermath

In 2008, AFH rebranded into Bank of Africa Group, and BMCE took a 35% shareholding interest, bringing much needed financial capital and banking expertise. BMCE became majority owner of the BOA group in 2010, and held a 72.6 percent equity stake by 2013.

In 2020, BMCE rebranded itself as Bank of Africa. Through successive transactions since 2004, Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale has become the second major shareholder of the group with 25% of the company's equity as of end-2020. The largest shareholder remains Othman Benjelloun at 27.4 percent, through his O Capital holding company and insurance company RMA Watanya.

Operations

BOA has offices in Europe, Asia, France, Spain, United Kingdom, China, Italy, Germany, UAE, Belgium, Canada and Netherlands.

Banking subsidiaries

A Bank of Africa billboard in Niger, 2019

BOA had operational bank subsidiaries in the following countries, as of March 2016:

1. Bank of Africa Benin
2. Bank of Africa Burkina Faso
3. Bank of Africa Burundi
4. Bank of Africa DRC
5. Bank of Africa Red Sea
6. Bank of Africa Ethiopia
7. Bank of Africa Ghana
8. Bank of Africa Kenya
9. Bank of Africa Ivory Coast
10. Bank of Africa Madagascar
11. Bank of Africa Mali
12. Bank of Africa Morocco
13. Bank of Africa Niger
14. Bank of Africa Rwanda
15. Bank of Africa Senegal
16. Bank of Africa Tanzania
17. Bank of Africa Uganda
18. Representative office in Paris.

Specialized subsidiaries

The specialized subsidiaries of Bank of Africa Group include the following:

1. Banque de l'Habitat du Bénin (BHB)
2. Equipbail Benin
3. Equipbail Mali
4. Equipbail Mada
5. Actibourse SA
6. Aissa - BOA's IT company
7. Attica SA

Entities of the BOA Group also include :

• BMCE Bank International – international business
• Meditel – telecom
• Medi 1 – radio station
• Africa Morocco Link – shipping company

See also

• Ecobank
• Standard Bank
• United Bank for Africa
• Zenith Bank
• List of banks in Morocco

External links

• Bank of Africa Group Website