Morocco’s Attijariwafa Bank has agreed to buy 55.22% of Societe Generale Ghana, ending the French group’s 23-year control of the Accra lender, the bank said on 1 October 2026.
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), the state pension fund that started the bank in 1975, will take a further 5%. SSNIT incorporated it that year as Security Guarantee Trust Limited and owned it outright. Between them, the two buyers will take the whole of Societe Generale’s 60.22% holding.
The change goes well beyond the share register. Under the agreement, Attijariwafa will take over all the subsidiary’s operations, client portfolios and staff. The bank employed an average of 536 people in 2025 and runs 40 branches and outlets across the country.
The statement gave no price. The sale still depends on the usual conditions precedent and approval from financial and regulatory authorities.
A sale two years in the making
The deal ends a process that went public in May 2024. On 9 May that year, Societe Generale Ghana’s management confirmed that the parent group had begun a strategic review of its stake.
In March 2025, Bank of Ghana (BoG) Governor Johnson Asiama said several prospective buyers had contacted the central bank, and that its job was to issue a no-objection and confirm that any buyer met fit-and-proper requirements. He added that the BoG would also check compliance with its merger and acquisition guidelines.
Ghana is the latest market Societe Generale has left in Africa. During 2025 the group completed the sale of several African units, including those in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mauritania and Equatorial Guinea, Ecofin Agency reported.
Societe Generale’s first foothold in Ghana dates to March 2003, when it bought controlling shares in what was then SSB Bank.
New ground for the buyer
Attijariwafa is Morocco’s biggest bank. It operates in 27 countries through majority-controlled subsidiaries. Its African markets are Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritania, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Niger, Benin, Congo, Gabon, Cameroon and Chad. Every one of its sub-Saharan markets is French-speaking, so Ghana would be the group’s first English-speaking country south of the Sahara. At the end of 2025 it had more than 7,000 branches and over 12 million clients.
Earnings under strain
The buyer is taking on a bank whose profits have fallen as Ghana’s interest rates have come down. Profit after tax for the first half of 2026 fell 47.7% to GH¢128.2 million, with net interest income down 29.7% at GH¢432.9 million, according to IC Securities.
For full-year 2025, net interest income held up despite the policy rate falling from 27% to 18% during the year. Profit after tax came in at GH¢397.0 million.
On 31 July 2026, IC Securities rated the stock a sell, with a fair value of GH¢4.10 against a market price of GH¢6.96. Shareholders and the BoG have approved a dividend of GH¢0.24 per share, due for payment in September 2026.
The statement did not say whether the change of control would lead to an offer for the remaining 39.78% held by other investors on the Ghana Stock Exchange.
