{"id":60246,"date":"2025-08-11T20:14:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states"},"modified":"2025-08-11T20:47:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:47:22","slug":"ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states","title":{"rendered":"Ecobank Optimistic About Second Half, CEO States"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Pan-African lender Ecobank is \u201coptimistic\u201d about the prospects for its second half performance, its chief executive said, as long as there are no further U.S. tariffs or other global shocks.<\/p>\n

The Lome, Togo-headquartered lender, which operates in 35 countries around the continent, posted a 23% growth in pretax profit for the first six months of this year thanks to recoveries in some of its key markets like Ghana.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident that we will see the business continuing to perform. We have got a diversified business,\u201d Jeremy Awori, the group CEO, told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n

Growth in the business is also being driven by payment services, remittances, trade finances and other non-lending income lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur lending is picking up. We are doing that cautiously because there are still many macroeconomic uncertainties and we don\u2019t want to lurch back into NPLs (non-performing loans),\u201d Awori, who spoke to Reuters on Friday, said.<\/p>\n

Ecobank\u2019s shares, which collapsed during the global financial crisis, are up by almost a third this year. That\u2019s more than double other regional lenders such as KCB Bank and Access Bank and well above the 6% rise in Standard Bank.<\/p>\n

Last week though, Ecobank\u2019s biggest shareholder, South Africa\u2019s Nedbank, put its 21.2% stake in bank up for sale, in part due to concerns it may have had to inject more capital in order to prevent \u201cshareholding dilution\u201d.<\/p>\n

As one of Africa\u2019s biggest lenders, Ecobank\u2019s cash distribution business has been impacted by U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s move to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Awori said.<\/p>\n

Ecobank has also been handling funds for the World Health Organisation, a United Nations agency that has also been affected by the USAID cuts.<\/p>\n

He did not provide data but Awori said the impact was distributed across its many markets, meaning the hit on deposits was not pronounced.<\/p>\n

He is also monitoring broader international developments too, especially the scale of U.S. trade tariffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cA decision taken by the U.S. against China or against Europe can have a knock-on effect across into our markets,\u201d Awori said. \u201cWe are very joined up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although an opening-up Ethiopia could be an exception given its size and potential, Ecobank doesn\u2019t have any near-term geographical expansion plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is never say never, but right now, for the next couple of years, we feel we have enough opportunities where we are,\u201d Awori said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Pan-African lender Ecobank is \u201coptimistic\u201d about the prospects for its second half performance, its chief executive said, as long as there are no further U.S. tariffs or other global shocks. The Lome, Togo-headquartered lender, which operates in 35 countries around the continent, posted a 23% growth in pretax profit for the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":60245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-60246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nEcobank Optimistic About Second Half, CEO States - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pan-African lender Ecobank is \u201coptimistic\u201d about the prospects for its second half performance, its chief executive said ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ecobank Optimistic About Second Half, CEO States\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pan-African lender Ecobank is \u201coptimistic\u201d about the prospects for its second half performance, its chief executive said ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-11T20:14:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-11T20:47:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/08\/sm_1754928944.737069.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"522\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ecobank Optimistic About Second Half, CEO States\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-11T20:14:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-11T20:47:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states\"},\"wordCount\":423,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/08\/sm_1754928944.737069.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/ecobank-optimistic-about-second-half-ceo-states\",\"name\":\"Ecobank Optimistic About Second Half, CEO States - 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