Why the banks stay optimistic

Oil, gas and Africa's biggest market keep the investors interested despite the increasingly desperate politics in Abuja ahead of the 2011 elections

After six weeks of billion dollar bail-outs, high-level sackings and the arraigning in court of five top executives, Nigeria’s financial sector is still robust enough to prompt paeans of praise from banks such as Goldman Sachs, Renaissance Capital and Standard Chartered. Not far behind in their pursuit of Nigerian business are South African banks such as Standard, ABSA (now controlled by Britain’s Barclays Bank) and First Rand – all of which are looking at buying stakes in troubled banks such as Intercontinental, Union and Oceanic.

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South African, Britain, Lamido Sanusi, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Mansur Mukhtar, Rilwanu Lukman, Michael Kaase Aondoakaa, James Ibori, Africa Confidential

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