Over the past year, Standard Bank Group has put together a number of groundbreaking deals on behalf of our corporate clients around the world. One of these multi-million-US-dollar deals involved being the sole arranger of a US$15-million finance facility required by Agro Traders Ltd.

As one of Nigeria’s largest cocoa exporters. Agro Traders handles about 15% of the country’s cocoa output.

Nigeria remains a core market for the Standard Bank Group, where we operate under the name of Stanbic IBTC Plc, and many of our customers.

We see further growth opportunities in Nigeria on the back of our well-established business there and also select acquisitions. The latter can help us to faster develop our Nigerian business or add market share and scale in select products, infrastructure and business units.

We have registered our interest to participate in the next round of consolidation in the Nigerian banking market.

Stanbic IBTC Bank officially became part of Standard Bank Group on 31 March 2008. This was the result of the merger of Stanbic Bank (Nigeria) Limited, a member of Standard Bank Group Limited, and the IBTC Chartered Bank Plc.

The bank is a full service universal bank with a clear focus on three main business pillars – Corporate and Investment Banking, Personal and Business Banking and Wealth Management.