Mauritius Commercial Bank to open Nigeria office

The largest bank in the island nation of Mauritius will soon establish a representative office in Nigeria as part of an effort to diversify its business beyond oil and gas transactions into renewable energy and mining, according to a senior executive.

As part of its expansion into Africa, MCB already has representative offices in Nairobi and Johannesburg in addition to its offices in Dubai and Paris. The bank has $850 million exposure in Nigeria.

The epidemic had caused a delay in plans for the Nigeria office, but they were now in the final stages of central bank approval, said Thierry Hebraud, head of corporate and institutional banking, addressing Reuters on the sidelines of the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan.

“Today, more than 50% of our balance sheet is outside Mauritius, and the major part is in Africa,” he said. “I believe within the next couple of months, we will be operating the new representative office in Nigeria.”

Hebraud claimed that the bank was now concentrating on structured finance for the upstream, downstream, and oil trade and that it was trying to expand into renewable energy and mining.