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Bringing the chronology closer home, Africa has also been a beneficiary of banking services for centuries even though it is quite unclear which is the oldest bank in Africa and if that bank still exists today.
The first bank to be established in South Africa, the Lombaard Bank in Cape Town, is one of the oldest banks in Africa. The bank opened its doors for business on 23 April 1793. The earliest proposals for the establishment of a central bank in South Africa were made as far back as 1879 - calls that were repeated for the following few years, until a select com- mittee, consisting of the ten members of Parliament was established on 31 March 1920 to examine the practicalities of establishing a central bank. Following on the recommendations of the committee, the South African Reserve Bank opened for business on 30 June 1921, making it the oldest central bank in Africa. The first banknotes were issued to the public by the Bank on 19 April 1922.
In North Africa, Tunisia’s oldest bank, Banque de Tunisie, was created in 1884 with its headquarters located in Tunis. National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is the oldest and largest bank in Egypt established in 1898.
In Francophone West Africa, Banque d’Afrique Occidentale, also known as BAO was established by French colonial authorities in 1901 in Dakar, Senegal
as the central bank of the colonies of French West Africa. BAO was originally created by the expansion of the Banque du Sénégal (itself created by the French on 21 December 1853). BAO later expanded to include French Equitorial Africa to administer the common curren- cy of French West Africa. Although it was a private investment bank, the French government authorized it to print curren- cy, and its board always included colo- nial officials. Following independence, the BAO was re-chartered as the central bank for the francophone countries of West Africa. On 22 November 1962, the bank was renamed the Banque des Etats de l’Afrique Centrale (BEAC) and the CFA Franc was renamed the Franc de la Coopération Financière en Afrique Centrale (The CFA franc).
Today, there are two Central Banks in Francophone Africa: The BEAC and BCEAO. Created in 1972, the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) is the cen- tral bank common to the six states that constitute the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC). They are respectively Cameroon, Central
African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad. This bank is headquartered in Cameroon and carries similar functions with the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) with head- quarters in Dakar, Senegal.
The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) is the common issuing institution of the member States of the West African Monetary Union (WAMU). At the time of
its founding on May 12, 1962, its member- ship comprised of the Republics of Côte d’Ivoire, Dahomey, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Senegal, Togo and Upper Volta. Currently, there are eight member States in the Monetary Union (UEMOA): Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo.
Banks in Kenya are supervised by Banki Kuu ya Kenya or the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). Based in Nairobi, CBK was formed in 1966, following the dissolution of the East African Currency Board. Standard Chartered Bank Kenya Limited, a subsidiary of the Standard Chartered,
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Office gadgets back then ranged from noisy typewriters to adding machines and tippex to overwrite type- written errors.”
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