Equity intends to enter the Ethiopian market within the next two years and may form a partnership with London-based private equity firm and ‘former’ shareholder Helios Investment Partners to provide banking in Africa’s second-most populous country,Mr James Mwangi has said.
“Equity favors acquiring an existing bank in Ethiopia, rather than setting up a lender, Mwangi said.It’s always good to take an existing infrastructure and then you enhance capacity, as opposed to greenfield.” Mwangi said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Ethiopia, Africa’s most populous country after Nigeria, is among 10 new markets Equity Group is targeting in a five-year plan announced in March and backed by 200 billion shillings ($2 billion) of funds.
Ethiopia had locked out Kenyan banks in November 2012 in a move aimed at encouraging domestic investment in the industry. The 10th WTO ministerial conference is scheduled to be held in Nairobi in December and Equity Bank hopes Ethiopia may be persuaded to sign up to the organization and this will open the country for foreign investment.
