With new features and rapid growth, African banks scramble to keep up with a regional economy pushing beyond regional borders.
Africa’s banking sector is enjoying significant growth bolstered by a wave of innovation. Key players are enhancing their offerings from sophisticated solutions in transaction banking and cash management to robust trade finance and cross-border payment platforms, demonstrating a commitment to efficiency, digital transformation, and client-centricity.
This drive to modernize underscores a dynamic, evolving financial landscape. African banks’ strategic investments in technology, localized solutions and expanded networks are not only streamlining financial operations for multinational corporations and individual clients but also fostering greater economic integration and resilience across the continent.
Best Bank for Transaction Banking | Rand Merchant Bank
Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) operates in over 35 African countries and through international offices as well. RMB offers corporate transactional banking, investment banking, markets and structuring, investing and investment management. Key offerings include Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS), online cash and investment tools. An integration channel helps businesses connect seamlessly and securely through RMB’s APIs and hostto-host channels, all designed for cost savings, efficiency and improved visibility.
“In Africa, agility and scale go hand in hand,” says Lizelle Pienaar, head of TTS. “Our role is to remove friction from our clients’ banking operations. Multinational businesses need consistency across markets alongside solutions tailored to local realities.”
Best Bank for Cash Management | Ecobank
Ecobank Transnational’s corporate transaction-banking platforms, Omni Plus and Omni Lite, experienced significant growth last year. Omni Plus processed 34.3 million transactions valued at $72.9 billion, an increase of 14% in volume and 25% in value, for 38,667 corporate customers (up 16%). Omni Lite handled 2.4 million transactions for $8.3 billion, a 23% rise in volume and 25% in value, for a customer base that jumped to 331,807 (up 12%). Trade finance business at Ecobank also grew over the year, with E-Trade facilitating $2.35 billion (up 47%). Ecobank’s RapidCollect solution processed $7.8 billion (up 23%). Ecobank also enhanced its corporate API service with a new Pan-African wallet-based collection and payment engine.
Best Bank for Financial Institutions, Best Bank for Payments & Best Bank for Collections | Standard Bank
Operating across 20 African nations, its network facilitates correspondent banking, cross-border payments and trade finance for other financial institutions. Offering comprehensive institutional banking solutions, Standard Bank leverages both physical and digital payment instruments for transactions to accounts or mobile wallets, individually or in bulk, covering cross-border and domestic electronic payments as well as cash, check and card transactions, along with beneficiary checks and payment notifications. The bank accepts all recognized tender and instruments, physically or digitally, for inward electronic transactions, cash and check deposits, card acquisition, direct debit and mobile wallet collections.
Best Bank for Long-Term Liquidity Management & Best Corporate Cross-Border Payments Solution | Bank ABC
ABC has seen wholesale-banking client engagement expand since it launched its Cash and Trade platform three years ago. The bank’s cash offering includes payments and account services with features including bulk file upload, Swift GPI integration and host-to-host functionalities. Serving conventional and Islamic banking clients globally, the platform unifies all group locations for a seamless client experience.
The bank is continuously developing new features, including collections and virtual accounts, and initiates payments over Buna, a platform for instant Middle East and North Africa regional as well as global payments—similar to the EU’s Single Euro Payments Area. In a pioneering effort two years ago, the bank partnered with the Central Bank of Bahrain and J.P. Morgan on a landmark high-value, cross-border, instant-payment pilot utilizing blockchain.
Best Provider of Short-Term Investments/Money Market Funds | Access Bank
Access Bank recently launched Nigeria’s largest-ever commercial paper offering, $266 million, demonstrating strong investor confidence. The innovative offering was praised by market stakeholders and helped Access Bank to top the FMDQ Market Turnover League Table for the fifth year in a row. Sister institution Access Bank Mozambique followed suit in March with an $11.6 million commercial paper issue, showcasing the group’s regional money market capabilities.
