In this article we, at CA Global Finance, unpack the financial giants who are setting the pace across banking in the African continent in 2026 and the leadership behind their exponential growth.

Without surprise, South Africa’s Standard Bank is on it’s way to reporting its first-ever and very impressive R50 billion annual profit. With that, the United Bank for Africa in Nigeria also just named its group CEO Banker of the Year. Kenya’s Equity Group swept its national banking awards behind a chief executive who has run the bank for over two decades. At CA Global Finance we would like to think that these successful strives are no accidents, they are results of a great team that was handpicked to lead well.

CA Global Finance has spent two decades placing the executives who run financial institutions across Africa, so when we rank the continent’s leading banks by assets, we look just as closely at who is leading them. Here are ten banks who are leading African banking in 2026.

10. Equity Group Holdings: Nairobi, Kenya

The CEO is Dr. James Mwangi and their assets stand at over US$14 billion+

The Equity Group based in Kenya announced its group CEO, James Mwangi, as its sector’s CEO of the Year, which was celebrated in their 2026 award ceremony, this was due to his successful leadership that led to a 15% rise in profit after taxes. Mwangi has led the Equity Group for over twenty years. In his two decades he has transformed the Equity from an individual Kenyan lender into a huge six-country group spanning Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and the DRC, where its Congo acquisition alone now supplies close to a quarter of group assets; tenure that is itself a talent story.

9. United Bank for Africa: Lagos, Nigeria

The CEO is Dr. Oliver Alawuba and their assets stand at over US$19 billion+

The United Bank for Africa‘s CEo was awarded the Banker of the Year 2026 award which encapsulates a career built entirely inside the bank. The United Bank for Africa operates across more than twenty African countries.

8. Ecobank Transnational Incorporated: Lomé, Togo

The CEO is Jeremy Awori and their assets stand at US$36 billion

No bank here covers more ground than Ecobank, present in 34 countries under Chairman Papa Madiaw Ndiaye and Group CEO Jeremy Awori. Net profit rose 29% in 2025 to US$689 million, with the group’s longest-established West African markets, across both the Francophone and Anglophone sides of the region, still generating most of that earnings growth. For employers hiring across borders, Ecobank is the clearest proof that one African banking brand can run coherently across a continent’s worth of regulatory regimes.

7. Attijariwafa Bank: Casablanca, Morocco

The CEO and Chairman is Mohamed El Kettani and their assets stand at about US$72 billion

Attijariwafa has built Morocco’s clearest route into Francophone West and Central Africa, ranking 979th on the 2025 Forbes Global 2000 with $4.84 billion in revenue. A recent executive reshuffle, including a newly appointed deputy CEO for retail banking, points to a leadership bench being deliberately deepened rather than concentrated in one office.

6. Banque Misr: Cairo, Egypt

The Chairman is Essam Eldin Elwakil and the CEO is Hisham Okasha and their assets stand at about US$78 billion

Founded in 1920 by economist Talaat Harb as a deliberately Egyptian-owned alternative to the foreign-owned banks of the era, Banque Misr remains one of the country’s big five lenders and a primary channel for national infrastructure financing. Alongside National Bank of Egypt, it helps give Egypt’s banking sector some of the strongest profitability and asset-quality scores on the continent this year.

5. Nedbank: Sandton, South Africa

The CEO is Jason Quinn and their assets stand at about US$100 billion

Quinn took the top job in 2024 after serving as CFO, and briefly acting CEO, at their competitor bank Absa which was a cross-institution move increasingly common atop South African banking. Since then he has pushed Nedbank further into green financing and recently offered nearly R14 billion for a majority stake in Kenya’s NCBA managing to extend the bank’s reach into East Africa.

4. Absa Group: Johannesburg, South Africa

The CEO is Kenny Fihla and their assets stand at about US$137 billion

Kenny Fihla joined Absa from Standard Bank in June 2025, bringing two decades of pan-African banking experience to a lender still building its identity a decade after its split from Barclays. Absa’s “Africanacity” positioning has translated into steady growth in its digitally active customer base and a leading role in large-scale infrastructure syndications.

3. National Bank of Egypt: Cairo, Egypt

The CEO is Mohamed ElEtreby and their assets stand at about US$157 billion

As Egypt’s oldest bank, founded in 1898, and its largest by assets, NBE serves as the government’s primary fiscal agent while dominating retail banking for a population of over 100 million. Its scale gives it the balance sheet to absorb economic shocks that would strain smaller lenders, while continuing to fund the energy and infrastructure projects underpinning Egypt’s growth.

2. FirstRand Bank: Johannesburg, South Africa

The CEO is Mary Vilakazi and their assets stand at about US$164 billion

Mary Vilakazi became FirstRand’s first female CEO in April 2024, stepping up from Chief Operating Officer to lead a group built around FNB, WesBank and RMB. She has been explicit about what she sees as FirstRand’s edge: its portfolio of brands, its talent and a “long-standing culture of empowerment and accountability”. Her leadership philosophy shows up in the group’s consistently strong returns.

1. Standard Bank Group: Johannesburg, South Africa

The CEO is Sim Tshabalala and their assets stand at about US$200 billion

Standard Bank remains Africa’s largest bank by assets and 2026 has been its strongest year yet. They achieved so far a record interim profit put it on course to be the first South African lender to cross R50 billion in annual earnings. Tshabalala, CEO since 2013, is preparing to hand over leadership in 2027 after growing group assets from R2 trillion to R3.6 trillion. Whoever succeeds him inherits a franchise spanning more than 20 countries, a strategic partnership with China’s ICBC and one of the biggest leadership transitions African banking will see this decade.

Talent is the real differentiator

Every bank on this list is chasing the same things, these are the adoption of digital advances, growth across borders and, ofcourse, much stronger balance sheets. What separates the leaders is who they’ve put in charge of getting there and how deliberately they’ve planned for what comes next. Standard Bank, UBA and Nedbank are navigating leadership moves this year; FirstRand and Absa have already been reshaped by one.

If your institution is building out its leadership bench for the next phase of growth, CA Global Finance has spent two decades placing banking and finance executives across the African continent. Get in touch to talk about your next c-level hire.