“Right now, agriculture is seen as key and,
although our market share is still relatively small,
we are looking to grow quite aggressively. We are
doing some really interesting things elsewhere in
Africa, and there’s a great opportunity to bring
some of those solutions to Tanzania.”
One of those initiatives is Unayo, a mobile
money platform that allows anyone with a
cell phone to seamlessly establish a banking
relationship, access their bank accounts, plan
their finances and perform transactions. Through
this and other innovations like “OneFarm” Stanbic
has already brought 600,000 small farmers
and other members of Africa’s rural populations
into the banking system. Both will eventually be
available in Tanzania and several other African
countries as well.
Another development that Wingfield mentions
is the focus by government to promote the oil
and gas industry through the likes of the East
African Crude Oil Pipeline, which will eventually
link Uganda’s oil fields to the Tanzanian port
of Tanga. The pipeline should give the port city
of Tanga and its hinterland a substantial boost,
and Wingfield says the bank can support local
participation in the project.
“Projects like this are going to drive the
economy, and our role is to attract and then
support investors who are going to make them
grow,” Wingfield says. “The great thing about
Tanzania is that it is such a diverse economy with
so many opportunities for investors.”
T
hat interest has been increasingly
focused on Tanzania, as the international
investment community recognizes the
country’s geographic advantage as a gateway
to six landlocked countries -- and the whole
continent beyond.
It may be easy for corporate planners sitting
in far-off headquarters to generalize about such
a large and diverse region, but the reality on
the ground is altogether more complicated.
Formulating a strategy that allows for the
differing demands of operating in Tanzania,
Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and South
Sudan requires a rare combination of pan-regional
and country-specific expertise.
One of the few financial institutions able to offer
support and advice on both fronts is the Standard
Bank Group of South Africa. With more than
150 years of experience operating in 20 African
countries and five global financial centers, its
franchises outside of South Africa date back to the
early 1990s and trade under the Stanbic brand.
Standard Bank has representation in Angola,
Botswana, the DRC, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana,
Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius,
Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Sudan,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“We are extremely confident of our ability to
help the Tanzanian government promote the
country as an investment destination, especially
in the context of the growth of East Africa and
the continent as a whole,” says Kevin Wingfield,
who was appointed chief executive officer of
Stanbic Bank Tanzania last year after several
years in a senior role at its sister bank in Uganda.
“We have a very strong wholesale franchise and
long-standing relationships with many of the
multinationals and regional businesses operating
in the country and the rest of the region,” he says.
Stanbic ranks among the top five banks in the
country in terms of overall market share. With the
bank’s ability to offer business clients international
syndication opportunities and access to its
domestic and international market connections,
Stanbic is the go-to bank for many overseas
investors. It is also active at other levels of society.
Its small and medium-sized enterprise (SME)
clients benefit from a range of point-of-sale and
digital banking services, and its retail clients have
access to everything from day-to-day banking to
insurance, loans and investment options.
STANBIC HAS OVER THE LAST
THREE YEARS RAISED AN
ESTIMATED $500 MILLION IN
FINANCING FOR TANZANIAN
COMPANIES AND INSTITUTIONS
ACROSS THE AGRICULTURAL,
CONSUMER, INDUSTRIAL,
NATURAL RESOURCES AND
GOVERNMENT SECTORS.
BUT WINGFIELD AND HIS
COLLEAGUES WILL HAVE
DERIVED JUST AS MUCH
SATISFACTION FROM THE
SUPPORT THEY PROVIDED TO
SMES AND LOCAL BUSINESSES
DURING THE PANDEMIC.
Historically responsible for 11% of GDP, the
Tanzanian tourist industry was particularly badly
hit by the travel restrictions that resulted from
COVID-19. But Stanbic was quick to step in.
“The tourist industry was one of the toughest for
us to manage during the pandemic because the
impact was so enormous,” Wingfield recalls. “We
had to offer many of our clients loan moratoriums
to see them through this difficult period.”
Since assuming the presidency in March,
President Samia Suluhu Hassan has made the
modernization of Tanzania’s agricultural industry
one of her priorities, and Stanbic is following
suit. “As a rule, we try to align ourselves with
the agenda of the government,” says Wingfield.
STANBIC BANK TANZANIA –
Banking on Future Growth
Over the past 20 years, the nature of the investment flowing
into Africa has been changing, with the focus shifting from
extraction of the continent’s raw materials to the much greater
added value of manufacturing and services.
Kevin Wingfield
CEO STANBIC Bank
CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR
time.com/specialsections
