Bank intermediation dominated Mauritanian banks’ activities in 2023

In 2023, banking intermediation was at the heart of Mauritanian banks’ operations, as they leveraged their deposit-taking and lending activities to support growth.

According to the Central Bank of Mauritania’s 2023 annual report, this activity accounted for 65.1% of the banking sector’s total consolidated assets.

Customer deposits at the 17 banks operating in the country recorded a significant increase of 12.3%, reaching 110.7 billion ouguiyas (MRU), or around $2.8 billion, at the end of December 2023. At the same time, net loans to customers rose by 5.3% to MRU 89 billion over the same period.

This dynamic has enabled banks to generate considerable interest margins, with their intermediation margin up 13.6% to MRU 544.5 million in 2023. These margins derive mainly from lending and deposit management.

In addition to intermediation, Mauritanian banks also benefited from signature commitments, such as guarantees and documentary credit operations, as well as other related activities such as foreign exchange and treasury operations.

The latter made a particularly strong contribution to the sector’s financial performance, with a spectacular 193.4% increase in income from investments in treasury bills, reaching MRU 367.99 million.

Taken together, these activities underpinned an increase in banks’ net banking income (NBI), which reached 9.5 billion ouguiyas, up 7.4% on the previous year. Despite an 11.5% increase in overheads, banks’ net income for fiscal 2023 remained profitable at MRU 1.87 billion.

The Mauritanian banking landscape at the end of 2023 was characterized by the presence of 17 banks, 7 of which are Islamic banks and 5 of which are majority-owned by foreign investors. This fast-growing sector continues to play a central role in the Mauritanian economy, supported by increasingly robust banking intermediation.