Crowned "Best Foreign Investment Bank in Africa" last fall, Deutsche Bank , which does not hide its ambition to further mark its territory on the African banking market, entrusts its development to two of its strategists. Eight months earlier, a former minister with well-established networks on the continent joined the group's supervisory board.

Loïc Voide and Kees Hoving, two former members of the "house", are the new co-CEOs of Deutsche Bank for the Middle East and Africa region, announced the first bank in Germany in a press release published on Monday, September 14. They replace the Saudi Jamal Al Kishi who left for Gulf International Bank last March. From one boss to two Africa This strategic reconfiguration at this level of the group's leadership, from one boss to two, says a lot about the importance attached by the German bank to the region. Moreover Claudio de Sanctis, global head of international private banking and CEO Europe Middle East and Africa (EMEA) of Deutsche Bank , does not hide it: in Africa, "we continue to see significant growth potential for an entity like ours. Based in Dubai with regular trips to the continent, Voide and Hoving will have the mission, among other things, of enabling the German banking group to "better exploit its internal synergies" for the benefit of development in Africa, while strengthening its relations with the sector. regional private. The German bank multiplies the distinctions on Africa Deutsche Bank started its African activities at the end of the 1950s in Egypt. But it is in South Africa that the leader of the German bank will establish its African headquarters, before deploying in large-scale projects across the continent. Although the reorientation of the group's activities in 2018 did not spare the South African subsidiary with the abandonment of certain investment banking activities, Deutsche Bank 's ambition on the continent was not affected as much. . "Our goal has always been to contribute to the construction of infrastructure and the development of the economy across the continent," said Jamal Al Kishi last fall. Recently, the bank multiplies the distinctions at the regional level. In October 2019, EMEA Finance African Banking Awards crowned it "Best Foreign Investment Bank in Africa" and "Best Foreign Investment Bank in Angola" where Deutsche Bank released $1 billion in the midst of the crisis to support the sector private. In June 2020, Euromoney presented him with the Excellence in Leadership in Africa Award, for having funded major projects before and during the coronavirus pandemic. Billions of dollars in financing underway The Frankfurt-based banking group is showing some interest in West Africa. In Côte d'Ivoire in May 2020, Deutsche Bank committed to co-finance the construction and equipment of two new regional hospitals (a $142 million project), as well as five new medical units in five hospitals. In August, 250 million dollars were announced for the construction of the first phase of the university town of Adiaké, in the northwest of the country, within the framework of the national program for the decentralization of university infrastructures. In Nigeria, Deutsche Bank is on a hybrid financing of 3 billion dollars for the implementation of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. In Ghana, the first German bank is going to lend 523 million euros to the State for the construction of port infrastructures in the west of the country. Parliament has already given its approval and work will start next October, for delivery in the second quarter of 2024. Very active on the debt market, Deutsche Bank is indeed a creditor of several States including Gabon which, as a reminder, obtained in 2013 a credit line of 1 billion euros to finance the renovation of a national road, the construction of the Military Health Application School and a drinking water supply project. In Cameroon, Deutsche Bank is facing a request for cancellation of a $25 million financing by GreenPeace. This is an agro-industrial project of Halcyon Agri , a Singaporean rubber giant, which would promote deforestation according to the NGO. The bank, for its part, is championing a project that would boost food security and the incomes of small local farmers. These are all issues that the new African bosses of Deutsche Bank will have to follow. Targeted post-covid recovery But it seems that beyond a simple strategy of developing the group's global influence, Deutsche Bank is now seeking to position itself at a time when African economies are considering their recovery. On occasion, the expertise of the German banking group is even presented as "essential to support the continent's recovery and help solve the long-term problems that are holding back development". The bank is particularly interested in financing trade “to and from Africa”. Under the eye of Sigmar Gabriel Internally in any case, Deutsche Bank is watching Africa closely. In addition to the arrival of Loïc Voide and Kees Hoving at the helm of regional development, the German banking giant recruited the former German vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel at the start of the year. Even if the group highlights the contribution it represents for its European affairs, the former German Minister of Economy and Finance, then of Foreign Affairs has strategic entrances through Africa, which would serve good for the development of the first German bank in the region.