The Banking Commission of the West African Monetary Union has approved the finalisation of Bosquet Investments Limited's USD 100 million acquisition of a 21.22 percent stake in Ecobank Transnational Incorporated from Nedbank, clearing the last major regulatory hurdle for the transaction. The approval was reported on Wednesday.
Bosquet Investments is the investment vehicle of Cameroonian financier Alain Nkontchou, who serves as Chair of Ecobank. The stake had previously been held by South Africa's Nedbank Group, and the transaction was originally announced by the South African lender in August 2025. The 21.22 percent shareholding is one of the largest single blocks in Ecobank's shareholder register.
DEAL STRUCTURE AND TIMELINE
The transaction has moved through the two-stage regulatory approval process characteristic of cross-border deals involving pan-African banking groups. Nigerian regulators granted their consent earlier in the sequence, and the seller-side leg of the transaction was completed in December 2025. Approval from the UMOA Banking Commission, WAEMU's supervisor of banking activity across its eight member states, was the remaining condition required to finalise Bosquet's ownership.
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated is headquartered in Lomé, Togo, and operates across more than 30 African countries, giving it one of the widest banking footprints on the continent. Its shares are listed on the Nigerian Exchange, the Ghana Stock Exchange and the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières in Abidjan. The multi-listing structure means significant shareholder changes attract the attention of regulators in several jurisdictions.
STRATEGIC SIGNIFICANCE
For Nedbank, the divestment concludes a lengthy retrenchment from a strategic stake in Ecobank that had been built up over more than a decade. The South African group had used the holding as a proxy for exposure to growth banking markets in west and central Africa without directly operating branches there. The exit crystallises the value of that position and simplifies Nedbank's own group structure at a time when South African banks have been sharpening their focus on core home-market franchises.
For Bosquet Investments and Nkontchou, the completed acquisition consolidates a substantial minority position at the top of Ecobank's shareholder register. The 21.22 percent block places Bosquet among the group's largest shareholders alongside Qatar National Bank and Nigeria's Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria. Nkontchou's position as Chair of Ecobank gives the transaction added significance for governance continuity at the pan-African group.
The finalised transaction removes an overhang that had lingered since the August 2025 announcement, when the identity of the buyer and the applicable price were first disclosed. Regional press reports carried by Togo First confirmed the WAEMU regulator's decision, with the parties expected to complete customary closing formalities in the days ahead. The wider Ecobank shareholder base includes investors from across Africa, the Middle East and international institutional markets. Analysts covering pan-African banks have highlighted the Bosquet transaction as a case study in the transition of significant minority stakes from foreign strategic investors to African financial sponsors, a trend that has accelerated in recent years across a number of the continent's largest banking groups. The involvement of a WAEMU regulator also reinforces the position of the regional supervisor as a gatekeeper for meaningful ownership changes at pan-African banks with a franchise in the francophone west African market.