who are we

About us

Who we are

We are a Pan-African group, inspired by the people we serve and determined to be a globally respected organisation of which Africa can be proud.

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We are committed to finding tailored solutions to uniquely local challenges, and everything we do focuses on creating value for our stakeholders.

To this end we offer a universal set of products and services across retail, business, corporate, investment and wealth banking as well as investment management and insurance solutions.

Listed on the JSE, the Absa Group is one of Africa’s largest diversified financial services groups with a presence in 15 countries.

We own Banks1 in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania (Absa Bank Tanzania and National Bank of Commerce), Uganda and Zambia as well as insurance operations in Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. We also have representative offices in Namibia, Nigeria and securities entities in the United Kingdom and the United States as well as an IT specialist office in the Czech Republic.

1 Banks are wholly owned apart from the following where we hold majority stakes: Botswana 67.8%, Kenya 68.5%, Mozambique 98.7%, National Bank of Commerce, Tanzania 55% and Seychelles 99.8%

 

What is our purpose?

Our purpose is to bring possibilities to life. We believe everyone should have access to the transformative power of financial services to help them plan, dream, and aspire to change their lives for the better. We will find creative ways to deliver innovative technologies and propositions to make more possible, and we will help shape a world that values progress and economic activity to serve the common good. We believe in growth that is sustainable, which serves to benefit generations of our customers, our employees, and our communities on our continent and in the world at large.

Our Values

We drive high performance to achieve sustainable results
  • We are accountable for our results
  • We innovate, are decisive, and act quickly
  • We learn from our failures, and we are bold enough to change course.
Our employees are our strength
  • We integrate diverse perspectives to invent the future
  • We collaborate with courage, honesty and powerful energy
  • We trust, value and grow our employees to achieve their full potential.
We are obsessed with the customer
  • We are curious, and we anticipate customers’ needs
  • We each take ownership of delivering the One Absa customer experience
  • We outperform by going beyond customer expectations.
We have an African heartbeat
  • We deliver a uniquely Absa experience, across Africa
  • We co-create across Africa to provide better solutions
  • We actively engage with our communities to bring people’s possibilities to life.

The Absa Way Code of Ethics

The Absa Way Code of Ethics outlines our values and expected behaviours when engaging with our fellow employees, customers and clients, shareholders, governments, regulators, business partners, suppliers, competitors and the broader community.

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Sustainability policy and summary sector financing standards

Sustainability policy

Summary coal financing standard

Summary mining, metals, minerals and precious/semi-precious stones financing standard

Summary oil and gas financing standard

An active force for good in everything we do

Our 2018 growth strategy laid the foundation to reimagine our business. However, 2020 brought with it a materially different operating context than the one in which our original growth strategy was set. The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally altered behavioural patterns, the way we work, collaborate, our perspectives on health and the fragility of life. During 2021, we therefore embarked on a strategy re-anchoring.

Following in-depth discussions regarding the strategic direction of the Group, the Board took the opportunity to reflect on our previous strategy, along with subsequent updates over the period. Our robust strategic review process made it clear that a fundamental shift in strategic direction was not required. Instead, we sought to re-anchor and refresh the tenets within our framework to ensure competitiveness and relevance within the evolving context. In this way, we desire to build on our success and momentum, learning from the last three years while adapting our strategy based on the changing internal and external environment.

Our strategic direction therefore builds on our successes, while acknowledging areas for enhancement. One such area is our desire to further entrench ESG principles throughout our business as we believe that embedding environmental, social and governance aspirations into core business strategy is vital for delivering true long-term value linked to our purpose of bringing possibilities to life. ESG was further elevated as a key priority from our 2018 strategy, along with digital. We aim to be an active force for good in everything we do, prioritizing business activities that have the most positive environmental, social and economic impact, while mitigating negative impacts. Our fifth strategic theme – being an active force for good in everything we do – encapsulates this ambition.

Through our strategic review process, we sought to clarify our intent to be active contributors to the greater good, not mere participants. As a result, we refined our strategic thinking towards a more purposeful intent. We therefore seek to create inter-generational value through active participation in managing planetary boundaries, contributing meaningfully to the societies in which we operate, and being committed to the highest standards of governance and ethics. Our strategic direction requires us to speak up publicly and be a positive influence in the world. As an active force for good in everything we do, our signature environmental, social, and governance actions include:

Environmental

  • Becoming Africa’s leader in sustainable finance
  • Proactively incorporating climate change risk into our business
  • Setting ambitious net-zero carbon emission targets
  • Achieving a positive impact on biodiversity in the medium term.

Social

  • Providing inclusive financial services to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), women and youth
  • Supporting education and skills development, for example, financial literacy, tertiary education and vocational training
  • Being there for our communities, employees and clients when they need us most
  • Championing diversity and inclusion.

Governance

  • Tangibly committing to excellence in governance and risk management
  • Ensuring fair outcomes and transparency with all stakeholders
  • Providing a resilient and robust control environment.

Public policy and regulation

  • Strengthening trust-based regulatory relationships
  • Acting as a strategic thought leader in crucial regulatory debates and contributing to and influencing national agendas
  • Supporting government policies in the collective interests of societies.

Our approach to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment

Absa supports a vision of a non-racial, non-sexist democratic society creating opportunities for all people to prosper.

We are committed to using our financial resources, the expertise of our people and our infrastructure to promote inclusive growth in the societies in which we operate. We aim to achieve this in a meaningful and sustainable way and do so as we simultaneously transform our own organisation. We are a values-based organisation, driving a culture of fairness and equal opportunity.

In South Africa, we embrace the principles of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Amendment Act, which serves as the basis for the Department of Trade and Industry’s Financial Sector Code (FSC).

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Our group legal structure

  1. South Africa
  2. Tanzania
  3.  See our latest Consolidated and separate financial statements for further information on subsidiaries and consolidated structured entities.