According to a recent study conducted by the Economic Service for Central Africa of the French Treasury, focusing on the sub-regional banking sector, three banks dominate the market and account for more than 75% of total employment.

These banks are BGFI Bank, BICIG and UGB.

Within this landscape, BGFI Bank remains the market leader, followed by BICIG and UGB. Of the CFA francs 1,764 billion in outstanding loans recorded in February 2019, BGFI Bank accounted for 40% of market share, well ahead of UGB (19%), BICIG (19%) and the four other banks, which together represented 22%.

However, when it comes to the number of bank accounts opened, the situation differs. UGB ranks first with 36% of all bank accounts in Gabon, followed by BICIG with 28%, Ecobank with 12%, and BGFI Bank, which accounts for “only” 11% of total accounts.

Gabonese banks have in fact adopted different strategies, with each institution targeting a specific market segment. In the corporate banking segment, BGFI Bank dominates the market with more than 3,000 corporate clients and 47% of the market share in corporate deposits.

Ecobank and UBA serve 3,900 and 1,650 corporate clients respectively, but each holds only 4% of the corporate deposits market share. Both banks primarily focus on small businesses, which generally maintain lower deposit volumes. Citibank stands out with a high average deposit per corporate client, amounting to CFA francs 362 million (CFA francs 55.5 billion in deposits in February 2019 across 153 companies). Its corporate clientele mainly consists of large international companies from the oil sector.

With regard to retail customers, in terms of number of clients, UGB and BICIG largely dominate the market, with 111,000 and 103,000 individual and professional clients respectively, out of a total of 312,000 in Gabon.

However, BGFI Bank leads the market in terms of retail deposits, holding 46% of market share, followed by BICIG (22%) and UGB (22%). BGFI Bank is in fact specialized in high-net-worth individual clients, while BICIG and UGB cater to more standard retail customers—primarily civil servants in the case of BICIG.

Source: Conjoncture Économique