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 British Multinational  Bank Pulls Out Of The African Market After Almost 100 Years

Barclays, a British multinational financial institution, says it has withdrawn from the African market after selling off its remaining 7.4% stake in South African bank, Absa as a final process in the series of events that was started six years ago. The 7.4% sale would earn Barclays around £538 million, which will represent a £31 million loss on its initial investment.

This sale is the first in a series of pullout sales.  Barclays sold a similar-sized stake for £526 million in the first quarter of 2022. This sale makes its largest and most dramatic withdrawal from Africa. The departure also marks the final step in Barclays’ plans to withdraw the vast majority of its presence from Africa.  The planned withdrawal started back in 2016 when Jes Staley, the CEO of Barclays at the time said the firm would move to focus more of its efforts in the US and Britain.

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In that trajectory, the bank sold its 62% ownership in Barclays Africa, a joint venture between Absa and Barclays that employed some 45,000 people before the time of the pull.  That is about a third of all Barclay’s employees. With millions of customers served, Absa controlled stakes in different banks in ten African nations, such as Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana.

Head of Communications of Barclays Bank, Ghana, Cyril Nai, has sought to calm brewing anxiety among key stakeholders of the bank by saying that nothing will change with Barclays bank Ghana.  He said it has been "business as usual" for Barclays Bank Ghana,  adding that nothing will change in the way the Bank conducts business with clients.  He went on to say, 

I can assure you that there have been no panic withdrawals, and things are calm. But that's because nothing has changed with the bank. People buy and sell shares every day, it doesn't mean that all of a sudden everything in the company changes.

Our strategy in Africa is the same, it hasn't changed.

Mr Nai then explained that Barclays PLC is different from Barclays Africa Group which runs the African business of Barclays. 

So by implication, nothing will change because the group that runs Barclays Africa is not getting out. So there is no need to feel worried" he said. 

According to pulse

History of Barclays in Some African Countries

History of Barclays in South Africa

In South Africa, Barclays was the biggest lender up until 1986 when it left the country at the height of apartheid but later returned and restarted its operations in the country with its corporate and investment banking division in 1995 when the climate was diplomatically conducive. The bank however did not restart its retail banking operation in the country until 2005.  

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History of Barclays in Nigeria

In 1925, Union Bank of Nigeria bank became known as Barclays Bank DCO (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas) after it was acquired by Barclays Bank. After Nigeria’s independence in 1960 and the enactment of the Companies Act of 1968, the bank was incorporated as Barclays Bank of Nigeria Limited (BBNL, est. 1969).

Between 1971 and 1979, the bank went through a series of changes including its listing on the NSE and its shares acquired and transfers were driven by the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion Acts (1972 and 1977).

This resulted in Barclays bank evolving into a new wholly Nigerian-owned enterprise. To reflect the new ownership structure, and in compliance with the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990, the name was changed to Union Bank of Nigeria Plc.

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