The African Banker Awards announces nominees

• Nigeria parades few nominations
Nominees for the ten categories in the 2017 African Banker Awards have been announced.
According to the information released by the organisers of the award, the larger African banks still dominate the nominees list, with banks from Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco and South Africa performing strongly across the board.
Few of the categories Nigerian financial institutions were nominated includes: African Bank of the Year with Guaranty Trust Bank; African Banker of the Year has Segun Agbaje, MD, GTB as Nigerian nomination;
Investment Bank of the Year, Nigeria has two nominees in Vetiva and FBN Capital. Socially Responsible Bank of the Year, Nigeria has Guaranty Trust Bank as its nominee. First Bank is the nominee for Nigeria in Innovation in Banking Award. Deal of the Year – Debt has FBN Capital with Neconde Energy Medium Term Facility.
The Awards, which are hosted by the African Banker Magazine, will be held during the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Wednesday 23rd May, 2017 at the Regency Hyatt in Ahmedabad, India.
Chair of the Awards Committee, Omar Ben Yedder, the Group Publisher and Managing Director of IC Publications Group which publishes the African Banker Magazine, said that he was once again pleasantly surprised by the caliber and strength of this year’s entries.
“Given difficult trading conditions across many African countries, we expected a slowdown across the banking sector in Africa.
We were pleasantly surprised to see that the financial services sector has managed to maintain on the whole positive developments. It was also interesting to note the number of competitive entries in certain categories, notably financial inclusion, innovation and social responsibility.
This shows how the banking sector in general is responding to the challenges that are facing the continent and the role they are playing in driving the continent’s transformation.
The deal of the year category is always an interesting one and again showed the activity in the equity and debt side, although there was a notable slowdown in activity across both debt and equity markets in general.”
This is the first time the AfDB’s Annual meetings will be held in India, and more precisely in the Gujarat State, which is where Prime Minister Narendra Modi used to be Governor.
As a shareholder in the African Development Bank, the Indian government offered to host this year’s Annual Meetings with the aim of strengthening economic ties between India, one of the world’s fastest growing countries with a population of 1.4bn, and with historic trading, economic and political ties with African countries.
The awards which are held under the high patronage of the African Development Bank are sponsored by the African Guarantee Fund, the Bank of Industry, the PTA Bank, the African Trade Insurance Agency and the Ecobank-Nedbank alliance.
The Gala Dinner and Awards presentation will take place at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Ahmedabad, on the evening of 23rd May.
This is the full of the nominees for the 10 categories:
African Bank of the Year:
Afreximbank
Attijariwafa Bank, (Morocco)
Guaranty Trust Bank (Nigeria)
Mauritius Commercial Bank (Mauritius)
Standard Bank Group (South Africa)

African Banker of the Year:
Segun Agbaje, MD, GTB (Nigeria)
Jeremy Awori, MD, Barclays Bank (Kenya)
Dr Charles Kimei, MD, CRDB Bank (Tanzania)
James Mwangi, Group MD and CEO, Equity Bank (Kenya)
Joshua Nyamweya Olgara, Group CEO, KCB (Kenya)
Dr Benedict Okey Oramah, President, Afreximbank

Best Retail Bank in Africa:
Ecobank (Togo)
Equity Bank (Kenya)
KCB (Kenya)
SBM Bank (Mauritius)
UBA (Ghana)

Investment Bank of the Year:
FBN Capital (Nigeria)
Fieldstone (South Africa)
Rand Merchant Bank (South Africa)
Standard Bank Group (South Africa)
Vetiva (Nigeria)

Financial Inclusion Award
African Local Currency Bond Fund
Amhara Credit and Savings Institution (Ethiopia)
Business Development Fund (Rwanda)
Caisse Centrale de Garantie (Morocco)
Verdant Capital (South Africa)

Socially Responsible Bank of the Year:
East African Development Bank
EFG Hermes (Egypt)
Guaranty Trust Bank (Nigeria)
KCB Foundation (Kenya)

Innovation in Banking Award:
African Development Bank
Ecobank (Togo)
First Bank (Nigeria)
Millenium Bim (Mozambique)
Wari (Senegal)

Deal of the Year – Debt:
Brait, $675m Acquisition Facility (RMB)
Helios Towers, $600m debut High Yield Offering (Standard Bank)
Kenya Power & Lighting Company dual tranche syndicated loan (Standard Chartered)
Neconde Energy Medium Term Facility (FBN Capital)
Standard Bank/Commercial Bank $25m Cross Currency Swap (Frontclear)

Deal of the Year – Equity:
CDC $65m Equity Investment in Zambeef
Ethos Capital IPO (RMB)
Neotel Sale to Liquid Telecom (RMB)
OGP sale to Helios (Argentil)
SGI Africa fund Raising (Lazard)

Infrastructure Deal of the Year:
AFC and Harith Asset Merger (Africa Finance Corporation)
Amandi Energy IPP, Ghana (Fieldstone)
Kathu 100MW Solar Park, South Africa (RMB)
Senergy Solar Plant, Senegal (Hogan Lovells)
Zambia Electricity Supply Corp. Power projects (Standard Chartered)
The organisers of the award explained that five other categories including individual recognitions are chosen by multilateral agencies, international experts and the editorial board of African Banker.
These categories are Best Regional Banks in Africa (North/East/Southern/Central/West), Finance Minister of the Year, Central Bank Governor of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, and African Banker Icon.
The winners are selected by an expert judging panel of known and respected leaders in banking, finance and business leaders known and will be announced on the evening of the awards ceremony.