By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)- Atlas Mara, founded Bob Diamond,  former chief executive of Barclays and Dubai-based billionaire business partner Ashish Thakkar has said its targeting small businesses and the middle class in Africa, a Reuters report quoted John Vitalo, its chief executive.

“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.

According to the report, both domestic banks and international lenders are jostling for more business in Africa, enticed by maturing democracies, a younger and wealthier population, urbanisation and improving education and infrastructure levels.

The report further affirmed that so far the company has banking operations in seven (7) countries after acquiring a minority stake in Union Bank of Nigeria, which forms about half of its assets, Botswana-based BancABC and Development Bank of Rwanda.

The Atlas Mara CEO says there would be more acquisitions in 2015, following the three (3) deals that the company made last year.

It said Atlas Mara is aiming for a return on equity (ROE) of between 15 and 20 percent. Africa’s biggest lender by assets, “Standard Bank is making an ROE of 21.5 percent from its operations outside South Africa,” the report added.

Shares of Atlas Mara’s dipped nearly 10 percent in London this year at $7.60 per share.