BOI Opens First SA Branch

One of Indian’s largest banks, Bank of India (BOI), yesterday opened its first branch in South Africa in Johannesburg to expand its presence in the African continent. BOI already had an office in South Africa for the past five years which has now been promoted to a full-fledged branch.

''Africa has, for long, has been our favoured continent and upgrading our representative office of the past five years to branch banking in South Africa is one more step in that direction,'' said  BOI chairman Alok Misra said at the opening ceremony in Sandton, the city's financial hub.

South African Reserve Bank's deputy registrar Nkosana Mashiya, commended that, ''We are quite grateful for the confidence that (the Indian) government and business continues to show in the South African economy and of the South African banking system in particular.''

The Mumbai-based financial institution also has presence in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia and it plans to open an office in Botswana in two month's time and also more offices in few other countries in West and East Africa due course.

“South Africa is the major powerhouse for sub-Saharan Africa, and we are committed to Africa as a continent. We see a lot of good things happening in Africa, where there are good resources and labour available,” Misra said.