Major South African bank expands into another international market
Absa has opened a new office in Dubai as South Africa’s third-biggest lender looks to further diversify its business and tap the growing trade and investment between the Middle East and the continent.
The office will allow the bank to serve its Africa-based clients seeking to do business in Gulf nations as well as Middle East-based firms wanting to access the region.
Gulf countries have invested more than $100 billion in Africa since 2014, according to the World Economic Forum.
Over that period, imports and exports between the United Arab Emirates and sub-Saharan Africa increased by more than 30%, and the value of trade between Saudi Arabia and the region increased 12 times, it said.
Absa joins rivals Investec, Standard Bank, and Nedbank in having offices in Dubai.
The new branch will add to Absa’s growing international business portfolio, which includes so-called corridors in the UK and US and a non-banking unit that it opened in China in 2024.
“It’s all about supporting trade and investment of global trade and capital flows into Africa,” Cheryl Buss, the chief executive officer for Absa International, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
Sovereign wealth funds as well as companies in the agriculture, minerals, energy, infrastructure and logistics sectors are driving interest in Africa, she said.
Absa’s so-called category 4 license, issued by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, allows the branch to arrange deals in investments, advise on financial products, and arrange and advise on credit, it said in a statement.
The bank has been on an expansion spree as it seeks to diversify its earnings away from the lender’s key markets of South Africa, Kenya and Ghana, which accounted for more than 80% of profit in the six months through June.
It plans to convert its representative office in Nigeria into a merchant bank, and is exploring a representative office in Angola.
The bank has also bought Standard Chartered’s wealth and retail-banking unit in Uganda in 2025, and also raised its stake in its Kenya unit to 72%, less than the 85% it had targeted.
Absa is also expanding its wealth offerings in Mozambique, Kenya and Mauritius while combining the operations of its two banks in Tanzania to streamline its presence in the East African nation.
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