Reuters
by Aziz El Yaakoubi
Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP), one of Morocco’s biggest lenders, has taken control of Niger’s Banque Internationale pour l’Afrique (BIA-Niger), an official from the Moroccan bank said on Thursday.
The deal was signed with the Niger’s finance minister as the African country has been the biggest stakeholder in the bank since 2012, when it bought it from Coris International Bank.
“We are investing 240 million dirhams ($25 million)as a capital increase which represents 53 percent of the capital,” Rachid Agoumi, BCP’s director in charge of corporate and international development.
BCP, through its African holding company Atlantic Business International (ABI), will buy another chunk from investors in Niger, which will take its overall stake close to 70 percent.
The government in Niger has agreed to support billions of CFA francs of the bank’s bad debt, BCP said.
The deal will make BCP the market leader in Niger as ABI already owns Banque Atlantique Niger, Agoumi said.
“With such a capital increase, BIA-Niger will be in good financial health,” he said.
BIA-Niger has 16 branches across the country including seven in the capital Niamey, according to its website.
Outside Morocco, BCP has banking operations in Ivory Coast, Senegal, Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
($1 = 9.7154 Moroccan dirham)
(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi; editing by David Clarke)
