As the world’s second fastest growing region, Africa’s banking sector is becoming more attractive to a diversity of stakeholders. The demand for banking and financial services on the continent is expanding alongside the acceleration of intra-African trade and population growth. Across sub-Saharan Africa only about a quarter of adults have formal bank accounts and only 3% have credit cards.

Major international banks, in both Western and emerging economies are looking to tap into the continent’s economic growth and vast market. Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, and China Exim Bank, to name a few, are expanding their operations into Africa. However, these international banks compete with African regional banks that emerged within the last decade, especially since the global financial crisis. The dominance by international banks of former colonial powers is increasingly rivalled by Pan African banks, which are investing ambitiously in technology, and are becoming ubiquitous across the continent.

As Africa becomes the new frontier of global finance, who are the winners and the losers of this changing financial landscape? What are the impacts of the increasingly competitive financial sector on African economies? How can African economies position themselves to benefit from this diversity of banking institutions?

This event is organised by the Global Economic Governance Programme.

The event is open to all, no registration required. For more information email: gegevents@univ.ox.ac.uk

The seminar will be chaired by Dr Emily Jones, Associate Professor in Public Policy (Global Economic Governance), Blavatnik School of Government.

Speakers

Dr Seydou Ouedraogo, Assistant Professor of Economics at Université Ouaga II, and Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellow

Seydou Ouedraogo is Assistant Professor and Researcher at Université Ouaga II, Burkina Faso, and Coordinator of FREE Afrik, an independent research institution based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. He is an economist who received his training in African (Burkina Faso and Benin) and French (Université d’Auvergne/CERDI) Universities. His research concerns banking and monetary economy, development strategies, and economy of culture.

He co-founded, with other economists, the Institute FREE Afrik, an independent research institution on West African economies, where he leads the research team of the Institute. Dr Ouedraogo also acts as a consultant for international and African public and private institutions, offering his expertise, on a volunteer basis, to cultural and civil society actors and cultural organizations.

Dr Edward George, Head of Group Research, Ecobank

Dr Edward George manages a team of eight analysts covering the fixed-income, currencies and commodities space in Middle Africa. Prior to being head of research, Edward headed the soft commodities desk, with a focus on cocoa, coffee, cotton, sugar and grains. Edward is also a specialist on Francophone West Africa and Lusophone Africa, and is the bank’s expert on intra-African trade and trade finance. Edward works closely with the corporate bank and trade finance teams, and regularly visits soft commodity producers, processers and traders across Ecobank’s 36-country African footprint. Prior to joining Ecobank in March 2011 Edward worked for The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for seven years as a Senior Editor in both the Commodities and Africa Departments. He was responsible for producing and editing reports on Lusophone and Francophone Africa, as well as on 25 industrial raw materials, food, feedstuffs and beverages. Before joining the EIU, Edward worked as a freelance writer covering the politics and economics of Sub-Saharan Africa. A linguist by training, Edward is fluent in French, Spanish and Portuguese and holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Bristol. His PhD thesis on the Cuban intervention in Angola was published as a book by Routledge in 2005 and came out in paperback in December 2012.

Giulia Pellegrini, Portofolio Manager, Blackrock

Giulia Pellegrini is a Portofolio Manager and Frontier Markets Econommist at Blackrock. She was previously J.P.Morgan's Sub-Saharan Africa Economist based in London and Johannesburg. Prior to that, Giulia worked at the World Bank as an economist in the Africa Region and in the debt policy and strategy division of Nigeria's Debt Management Office in Abuja. Giulia holds an MSc in Economics for Development from St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, and a BSc in Economics from the School of Oriental & African Studies of the University of London.