Standard Chartered Bank has announced plans to explore the sale of several business units in Botswana, Uganda and Zambia as part of a strategic shift to fund increased investment in its wealth management operations.
This decision marks the latest move in the bank’s ongoing evaluation of its global business model and follows a trend of exits from other African markets over the past few years.
In a statement, Standard Chartered described this initiative as “the first in a small number of potential business exits.”
Bank group chief executive Bill Winters said the decision was taken in an effort to concentrate resources in areas where the bank has the most profitable business.
“We continually assess the efficacy of our global business model and regularly take action to concentrate resources where we have the most distinctive client proposition,” Winters said.
Winters said the bank has significantly increased its wealth assets under management in sub-Saharan Africa since 2021, particularly through its operations in Kenya and Nigeria.
The latest move comes over two years after Standard Chartered Plc announced plans in April 2022 to exit Angola, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Lebanon, Jordan, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
JN/APA