Citibank is extending its base into South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt to contest for a fraction of international business profit on a continent where foreign investment is particularly surging in financial technology start-ups.
Citibank in Africa
The news arrives after the American financial services group – Citibank Group – declared an exit from consumer and retail banking in Asian, European, and Middle Eastern markets. The American financial services group exited from 13 markets across said regions.
The Citibank expansion also arrives weeks after British financial services and banking group – Standard Chartered – declared strategies to lock around 50% Nigerian subsidiary branches to permit migration to digital banking to augment consumer service.
Citibank’s extension into some of the colossal economic centres in Africa also resonates with its activities in nations like Australia, where it established a commercial banking enterprise in 2019.
Augmenting Profitability, Stock Rate
Ebru Pakcan, the Citigroup Chief Executive Officer for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) developing markets cluster, authenticated strategies for expanding in an interview with Bloomberg in Dubai.
Citibank has been scrutinising operations in global markets since Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser took over in March 2022. The bank has abandoned 13 nations but continues to deliver products to elite clientele and institutions in these markets.
In January 2022, the Citibank Group declared its exit from the consumer, small business, and middle-market banking factions in its Mexican subsidiary by June 2022. The Citibank exit put an end to two decades of retail presence within the nation, the last of its international consumer business.
Decisions to sell its Mexican asset are part of Jane Fraser’s (Chief Executive Officer of Citigroup) plan to bring profitability and stock rate performance within the group’s contemporaries.
Citibank intends to extend wealth management faction swiftly and hopes to augment its presence in Africa by leveraging on relationships fabricated elsewhere.
Aims on Existing Clients
Ebru Pakcan stated that the bank would maintain a presence within markets with a caution that it would not go to tiny enterprises but instead aim at making the Citi network accessible to existing clients with an office or facility in numerous countries and regions.
Pakcan stated that the bank was working on the blueprint to augment the United Arab Emirates wealth. In addition, the firm was strategising about fabricating space and planning around where to position the new hires.
