IFC’s investment in July 2007 of one billion South African rand (about $140 million) in South Africa’s Nedbank illustrates how IFC is helping broaden the reach of African banks.
Nedbank will use the funds to increase lending to underserved markets in Africa for affordable housing development, black economic empowerment transactions, smaller businesses, large-scale infrastructure and resource-extraction projects, and the agribusiness sector. It will also strengthen the corporate governance standards of its regional subsidiaries, business partners, and clients.
The Nedbank partnership was not the first time IFC invested in a South African bank to help it expand in Africa. In 2006, IFC invested $75 million in Standard Bank so it could provide long-term subordinated loans to its subsidiaries in Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Nedbank is already a leader in the region when it comes to sustainable banking. It is the only bank in Africa that has adopted the Equator Principles, a voluntary set of guidelines for managing social and environmental issues in project-finance lending, based on IFC’s performance standards.
The investment in Nedbank is IFC’s largest to date in Sub-Saharan Africa’s financial markets. The African Development Bank also invested an equal amount of funds in Nedbank alongside IFC, helping create a platform for greater coordination between the two institutions.
For more information contact:
Houtan Bassiri
Communications Officer
Johannesburg, South Africa
Tel: +27-11-731-3179
Email: hbassiri@ifc.org
