Money from the Gulf has been finding its way into Africa for more than a decade, and South Africa's banks have been setting up in Dubai to be closer to it. Absa is the latest, about a year and a half after Bloomberg first reported the plan. On 29 October it opened its first office in the Gulf, in the Dubai International Financial Centre, joining Investec, Standard Bank and Nedbank.
The sums involved are not small. The World Economic Forum reckons Gulf countries have invested more than $100 billion in Africa since 2014, Bloomberg reported. Non-oil trade between the UAE and Africa reached $158 billion in 2025 on UAE government figures, about two-fifths more than a year earlier.
A licence to arrange deals, not to lend
What the office may do is set by its licence. The Dubai Financial Services Authority granted Absa's branch a Category 4 licence, effective 15 July 2026, which lets it arrange deals in investments, advise on financial products, and arrange and advise on credit. It will not lend from its own balance sheet, Reuters reported. So the branch is a go-between: Gulf companies, investors and institutions come through the door, and Absa connects them with its banks across the continent.
Clinton Clarke, who heads the branch, described the gap it is meant to fill. "For Middle Eastern-based businesses and investors looking towards Africa, the challenge is often understanding how an opportunity translates into a viable business decision," he said. Cheryl Buss, chief executive of Absa International, made the same point from the other side: "Investment decisions are shaped by more than the availability of capital."
Three countries and 80% of the profit
The office is also about where Absa earns its money. Bloomberg reports that South Africa, Kenya and Ghana between them produced more than 80% of the group's profit in the first half of 2026, and the bank has been expanding to change that. It already runs so-called corridors in the UK and US, and plans to turn its representative office in Nigeria into a merchant bank.
Absa has also said how it wants the Dubai office judged. Its value, the bank says, "will ultimately be measured by the business it enables, the investment it supports and the enduring commercial relationships it helps build between Africa and the Middle East."
