Banks in Africa

With 985 verified banks spread across 54 African countries and territories, estimating total branch numbers is more art than science our best working figure sits around 99,000 branches continent-wide. As ever, Africa's economic story is one of trade, agriculture, and industry, underpinned by the continent's abundant oil, diamond, and gold reserves.

By verified bank count, Egypt (48) currently leads the continent, followed by South Africa (46), Kenya (44), and Tanzania (42) together these four markets alone account for roughly 18% of all verified banks in our African directory.

Across the continent, 95.7% of all verified banks maintain a direct SWIFT/BIC connection, a figure that varies significantly by country. Among markets with a meaningful number of listed banks, Algeria (100%) and Angola (100%) show the strongest direct connectivity, while Gabon (58.3%) and Egypt (77.1%) rely more heavily on correspondent banking relationships to reach the global SWIFT network.

Together, the 54 African countries and territories in our directory are home to an estimated 1,575,640,213 people and a combined GDP of approximately $3,601.7 billion. South Africa holds the continent's largest economy by GDP, at roughly $480.0 billion.

Economic conditions vary sharply across the continent: South Sudan currently reports the highest average inflation in our dataset at 113.9%, while Seychelles sits at the opposite end with just 1.1%, a gap that speaks to how differently monetary policy and currency stability play out from one African market to the next.

SWIFT-to-Bank Ratio in Africa

When browsing our banking directories, you will notice that the Connectivity of SWIFT network is often lower than the total number of banks. This is known as the SWIFT-to-bank ratio, and it provides insight into a country’s financial infrastructure.