CASE STUDIES FROM AFRICA

Table 21: Contribution of Banking Services to Total Employment in Nigeria
Year Total Number of Employees
in Banks
Total Employment
in Nigeria
Percentage of Bank
Employees in Total
2001 26,234 39610699 0.07
2002 23,095 40412296 0.06
2003 32,904 41215948 0.08
2004 30,231 41951865 0.07
2005 36,817 43092686 0.09
2006 31,656 44347507 0.07
2007 62,516 45558533 0.14
2008 69,326 46893149 0.15
2009 102,673 48187380 0.21
2010 64,364 49617165 0.13
Sources: (a) Banks’ annual reports procured from the Analysts Data Services and Resources Limited for total number of
employees in the Nigerian banking sector, and (b) World Bank World Development Indicators 2013 for Total Employment
in Nigeria.
Table 22: Average Salary in the Banking Sector
Occupation Average Monthly Salary in 2009
Professionals (including operations managers) US$ 1,980–2,300
Customer service US$ 528–990
Elementary/lower levels US$ 330–528
Source: Nathan EME, 2010.
Cross-border Activity of Nigerian Banks
After the end of Apartheid, several South African banks, most notably Standard Bank and
Absa, started expanding throughout the continent. More recently, two West African banks—
Ecobank and Bank of Africa—have begun expanding throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
Similarly, Moroccan banks have started to expand south. Finally, and as consequence of the
recent consolidation wave in Nigeria, Nigerian banks have begun to expand throughout
West Africa, but increasingly also throughout the rest of the continent. And in recent years,
Kenyan banks have started to expand throughout East Africa. The importance of crossborder
banking can be illustrated both at the bank and the country level. Several
multinational banks are present across the continent. Specifically, Ecobank is now active in
35 countries, whilst South Africa’s Standard Bank has expanded into 16 countries. United
Bank for Africa operates in 20 African countries. European banks such as Standard
Chartered or BNP Paribas continue to be active across large parts of the continent. Some of
this expansion has come through merger and acquisition activity, others through greenfield
entry.
Nigerian banks’ cross-border activities started in 2002, with two banks setting up operations
in a few countries in Africa, and increased after the 2004 banking sector consolidation in
Nigeria. Following the 2004 increase in minimum capital requirements from N 2 billion
(US$ 17 million) to N 25 billion (US$ 210 million), the Nigerian banking system consolidated
and the number of banks fell from 89 in 2003 to 24 at the end of 2013. The total assets of the
banking sector increased from N 2,767 billion (US$ 23 billion) in 2003 to N 14,932 billion
(US$ 127 billion) in 2008. By the end of 2008, more than half of the 20 domestically owned
Nigerian banks remaining had subsidiaries in at least one other African country, compared
to only two in 2002 (see Table 12 above and Figure 3 below). United Bank for Africa was the
leader, with subsidiaries in more than 20 African countries. Although cross-border
expansion of Nigerian banks was temporarily halted by the global financial crisis in 2008–
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