Bob Diamond looks to build biggest bank network in Rwanda

The company plans to invest $22.5m in Banque Populaire du Rwanda

Bob Diamond raised $325m for his African venture in 2013 (Getty)

Bob Diamond, the former chief executive of Barclays who quit over the Libor scandal, took another significant step yesterday in building his African banking venture, Atlas Mara.

Mr Diamond has teamed up with Ashish Thakkar, an African entrepreneur who made his first entry into the Sunday Times Rich List this weekend, in 270th place, with a fortune reckoned to be £500m.

They floated Atlas Mara on the London stock market at the end of in 2013 and raised $325m (£215m) to make acquisitions across Africa in the financial services sector.

When at Barclays, Mr Diamond had been a big fan of the rapid growth of banking services, particularly mobile banking, among Africa’s fast-growing middle class.

(BPR), in which it would end up holding a 45 per cent stake. It would then merge BPR with last year’s acquisition of BRD Commercial Bank of Rwanda.

It will eventually end up with a 70 per cent controlling interest in the merged banks, which together would become Rwanda’s largest branch network, and second largest bank by assets, with a combined value of some $305m.

The Dutch bank Rabobank is a significant minority shareholder in Banque Populaire du Rwanda and will remain an investor. This could lead to further opportunities to work together.

An Atlas Mara spokesperson said: “Given Rabobank’s agricultural lending expertise and broad network of investments and operations in Africa, and Atlas Mara’s operational expertise and sub-Saharan African ambitions, Atlas Mara and Rabobank are enthusiastic about the potential to work together in other markets, as well.”

Banque Populaire du Rwanda focuses on lending to small businesses and farmers, while BRD Commercial is in retail and mortgage banking.

John Vitalo, the chief executive of Atlas Mara, said: “This is a very important transaction for Atlas Mara and I am excited by the prospect of our second acquisition in Rwanda. We will be the largest bank by branch locations and the second largest by assets in the country, which is one of sub-Saharan Africa’s most dynamic economies.”