Atlas Mara targets Africans ignored by others

Johannesburg - Atlas Mara, the newest entrant to the African banking market, plans to target low-income earners in addition to the multinational companies and middle-class consumers existing lenders have concentrated on, its chief executive said.

"We want to do things outside the traditional banking model used in Africa. We want to service smaller businesses and the middle class and even further down the economic pyramid than that," John Vitalo told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit.

"You can expect us to be broadly balanced between retail and wholesale banking, although this will be different from country to country," he said.