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Ivory Coast bank assets up 11 pct in 2017 on solid economic growth
Employees work at the Stanbic Bank in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, April 9, 2018. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Luc Gnago
24/04/2018
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's banking assets reached 9.51 trillion CFA francs ($17 billion) in 2017, up nearly 11 percent over the same period in 2016 as a result of strong economic growth, an industry group said on Tuesday.
Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer and francophone Africa's largest economy, registered 7.6 percent GDP growth in 2017, down from 8.5 percent in 2016 but still enough to drive solid banking sector growth.
"By December 31, 2017, the banking sector had collected more than 9.5 trillion francs in resources," Guy Koizan, president of the Professional Association of Banks and Financial Institutions, told reporters in the commercial capital, Abidjan.
Banking assets stood at 8.59 trillion CFA francs in 2016, according to the association.
Koizan said that if economic growth remained strong, bank assets would reach about 13 billion CFA in 2020 but said that only 16 percent of the population currently has a bank account.
(Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Editing by Sofia Christensen and Alexander Smith)
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