the full list and our analysis

Our 2025 table of the Top 100 African banks has a very familiar look to it (scroll down for the full list.)

The top three are in the same order as last year, while the only change in the composition of the top ten is that Algeria’s two biggest banks swap places at #10 and #11 positions. Overall, the rankings are fairly stable, with some slight growth from last year’s survey. Total capital is, however, still down on 2022: so it has been a steady if not spectacular year for African banks.

South Africa’s Standard Bank remains the continent’s biggest bank by some distance, with its $13.2bn Tier 1 capital up from $12.5bn last year. This is well ahead of National Bank of Egypt in second place with $7.3bn, down slightly from $7.5bn in 2024. Morocco’s Attijariwafa Bank comes third with $6.2bn, up from $6bn in 2024, as it begins to close the gap on its North African rival.

Attijariwafa Bank recorded a 26.6% rise in its net profit for 2024 to $950m, with growth in its operations both in Morocco and more generally across the 13 other African countries in which it operates. It lent 8% more in Morocco last year, increasing its market share to 28.1% from 26.9% in 2023. Attijariwafa also has branches in ten markets outside Morocco, mainly in Europe but also the Gulf States, which largely serve Moroccans living overseas. The bank now also works with cross-border payment provider Thunes to enable remittances to be transferred into Moroccan accounts within seconds.

North African banks rise

The biggest long-term change in the Top 10 is that South Africa’s four biggest banks are no longer the four biggest on the continent. Going back more than a decade, Standard Bank, FirstRand, Absa and Nedbank were regularly the four biggest African banks, with Investec sometimes making the top five entirely South African. However, the relative dominance of the country’s banks has been eroded as a result of the poor performance of the South African economy, even if the banks themselves have generally outperformed the national economy as a whole. Standard Bank may still lead the way, but its capital of $13.1bn is not a big increase on the $10.3bn it achieved in 2013, for example.

While there may appear to be geographical diversity in the Top 100, the top of the table is monopolised by South African and North African banks. Nigeria’s Access Bank is the biggest in sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa, at #14 place with $2bn in “Tier 1” capital (see box on methodology). Nigerian banks managed to break into the top ten between ten and 15 years ago, but their relative strength has declined as the Nigerian economy has faltered, with falling oil production, currency fluctuations and the slow pace of economic diversification taking their toll – although the country is plotting a turnaround.

The presence of both Banque Extérieure d’Algérie and Banque Nationale d’Algérie in our Top 10 could suggest some economic strength in that country but the picture is mixed. Algeria’s GDP has grown by an average of 3.8% a year since 2021 as oil and gas prices have recovered on the back of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the country faces the same structural challenges as ever.

The Algerian government still controls key parts of the economy and planned economic diversification has been slow, curtailing the growth of the private sector and reining in the growth prospects for Algerian banks. These have also been much slower than their Moroccan counterparts to expand into the rest of the continent, although Algerian Bank of Senegal and Algerian Union Bank’s operations in Mauritania are at least a start. At the same time, Bank of Algeria finally joined the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) in August 2025.

Banks in North Africa have increasingly dominated our table as a whole and account for 42 entries this year after reaching 43 in our 2024 table. This year, 17 of those come from Egypt and nine from Morocco, although the Moroccan banks are on average ranked higher, with Fonds d’Equipement Communal the only Moroccan bank placed lower than #38.

East African banks follow up

East Africa is the next best represented region with 21 entries, led by Kenya with ten. The number of Ethiopian banks stands at six, up from five last year and just two in 2022. It seems likely that Ethiopian banks will gain greater representation as a result of banking sector deregulation and growing competition in that country’s financial services sector.

Southern Africa has 20 entries, with six each from South Africa and Mauritius, although the South African banking sector as a whole is more important given the size of its banks. Mauritius is the best represented country in our table in relation to the size of its population, with one bank in the Top 100 for every 210,000 inhabitants.

By contrast, West and Central Africa is the worst represented region, with just 17 entries, including just two – BGFI Gabon and Rawbank of the Democratic Republic of Congo – in Central Africa. Nigeria has ten banks in our table, although its 10% share of the entries is a lot lower than its 16.5% share of the continent’s population. Francophone sub-Saharan Africa is particularly poorly represented with just six entries if Rwanda, with Bank of Kigali in #96 position, is included.

East Africa’s position is not as strong when total Tier 1 capital for all banks in our Top 100 is assessed. The combined capital of all its entries stands at just $12.7bn, the lowest of any region, although this does represent the biggest proportional increase since our 2024 survey, when the figure stood at $10.5bn. It should also be noted that the number of East African entries has risen from 13 in 2022 to 21 today, so although it could be seen as the weakest region in terms of banking strength, it can also be characterised as the fastest growing.

West and Central Africa has the next lowest capital at $14.9bn, which is actually a fall from $15.6bn last year, suggesting that the region’s banks as a whole have not experienced a positive past 12 months. Southern Africa comes next with $40.4bn, up from $37.4bn last year, while North Africa is the most important region overall with $57.9bn, a small rise from $56.5bn in 2024.

Despite the importance of South African banks, the greater number of North African banks means that the region has more Tier 1 capital among its entries than any other region.

Growing competition

Our Top 100 has combined Tier 1 capital of $126bn this year, up from $120bn in 2024 but still well down on the $135.3bn recorded in 2022. Despite growing competition in the sector and the benefits of digitalisation for both banks and bank customers, it appears that the continent’s biggest banks have had a reasonable rather than spectacular past 12 months.

However, our table does not capture smaller banks and there is no doubt that there are many new entrants in the sector as digital banks, agency banking, mobile money and telecoms companies all offer a range of different approaches that are helping to provide financial services to the unbanked.

Despite the slight increase in total Tier 1 capital in the Top 100, this rise seems to be more concentrated among the larger banks in our rankings. Awash International Bank took the #50 place in this year’s table with $507m but Banco Angolano de Investimentos needed $533m to take the same position last year. Moreover, Algeria’s Allam Bank required $222m to secure the final position in our rankings this year but $230m was required for Union International de Banques to achieve the same place in 2024.

New entrants and big movers

There are nine new entrants in our Top 100 and 13 banks move up 12 places or more in our table, including three Ethiopian banks. Indeed, Awash International Bank is the biggest riser, moving up 18 positions to #50 in our table with Tier 1 capital of $507m. Awash was the first private commercial bank set up following the initial phase of deregulation in 1991, and now has almost 12m customers.

Four Kenyan banks are among the biggest risers, providing further evidence that East Africa as a whole is growing in strength.

As well as being the biggest bank by Tier 1 Capital this year, Standard Bank was also the most profitable bank with a profit of $2.7bn. Only five other banks recorded profits in excess of $1bn: National Bank of Egypt with $2.3bn, Attijariwafa Bank ($1.2bn), FirstRand ($1.4bn) and Banque Misr ($2bn). At the other end of the scale, Crédit Agricole du Maroc registered a profit of just $5m, despite being ranked #31 in terms of Tier 1 Capital, but this may be because of its role in supporting social and economic development in rural Morocco.

Widening the pool of customers

African banks have put a great deal of attention on growing their customer numbers in recent years, using digital platforms to reach and serve customers at a lower long-term cost that through traditional bank branches. This has encompassed previously unbanked individual retail customers but also the micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) that make up the vast majority of businesses in Africa and worldwide.

Development banks are playing a key role in providing commercial banks with financing to help reach smaller businesses.

Most recently, in July 2025, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development signed an agreement to provide the National Bank of Egypt with $50m to support MSMEs, with a particular focus on driving sustainable economic growth, job creation and financial inclusion in areas with a high proportion of people without access to banking services.

This followed a similar agreement in 2023, under which the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development provided NBE with $400m funding for SMEs, including through the bank’s network of almost 700 branches. Standard Bank also secured $400m from the African Development Bank in December 2024 to “enable the scale up of trade finance support to local banks” through lending to SMEs. The increased penetration of banking services, even to customers who generate relatively little profit today, should create more banking activity in the future as those individuals and SMEs become wealthier.

Methodology: how we rank African banks

Capital in our table refers to Tier 1 Capital: banks’ initial capital, plus reserves and retained earnings, which demonstrates a bank’s overall strength. The column for assets essentially covers the size of their loan book. It should be noted that there is some variation in the date of the most recent results for each bank; we have used the most up-to-date figures available and have excluded some banks where data is old or unreliable. Most of the continent’s biggest banks are based in fairly open markets. Although Libyan banks are generally well capitalised, no data is available and so they cannot be included.

The data come from the Bankers Almanac and African Business in-house research. The figures are based on capital, asset and profit figures from the latest financial results, which the banks publish in local currencies but which we convert into US dollars to allow for comparison. Currency fluctuations affect year-on-year comparisons and lead to changes in the rankings.

Development banks

The continent’s development banks, such as the African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank) play an important role within the continent’s financial ecosystem and they too can be assessed in terms of their Tier 1 capital.

The AfDB is the biggest development bank in Africa by some distance, with $15.6bn, up from $14bn in our 2024 survey. That is enough to place it at the top of our Top 100 African Banks, ahead of Standard Bank, if it were included alongside the commercial banks. It is followed by Afreximbank – which the AfDB helped found and in which it still holds a stake – with $6.2bn; and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa with $5.6bn.

Last year the AfDB disbursed about $10bn; Africa requires much more from multiple sources.

Afreximbank and the AfDB are also the largest development banks when measured by assets, holding $90.7bn between them. According to the Association of African Development Finance Institutions, the financial performance of African development banks outstripped that of their counterparts on other continents in 2022, with a return on assets of 1.37%; European development banks manage 0.46%.

Other development banks operating in specific regions are usually tied to regional organisations, such as the Southern African Development Community and the East African Community. The Development Bank of Southern Africa is the largest with $2.5bn, just ahead of Banque Ouest Africaine de Développement ($2bn), Ecowas Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) ($541m) and the East African Development Bank ($337m).

Africa’s development banks are important sources of long-term financing and their support for projects tends to encourage other lenders, including commercial banks, to join them.

They raise most of their funds from member states’ subscriptions and borrowing on international markets. Income also comes from loan repayments and some support from donors. They are a key source of lending to micro, small and medium enterprises by the continent’s commercial banks, which have often been reluctant to provide finance.