2011 African Banker Awards announces winners

Standard Bank Group of South Africa, picked up the trophy for the equally coveted African Bank of the Year award, presented by Houda Shoukry, managing director of the Mediterranean Smart Cards Company (MSCC).

Evelyn Oputu, CEO of the Bank of Industry in Nigeria, was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and set a new record for being the first woman to receive this particular accolade.

Another milestone came when the central Bank Governor of Uganda, Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile was rewarded not only for his work in the past year but for being the architect of Uganda's economic revival.

The winners

Commenting on the awards, Omar Ben Yedder, group publisher of African Banker magazine, said, "The Egyptian revolution has not stopped the resolve with two winners from Egypt. And in fact what these past few years have taught us is that we have financial institutions that have been able to show resilience in the midst of uncertainty and global shocks, something which would not have been possible two decades back. And we are seeing Africans showing the lead - for example new regulation in Nigeria has ring fenced commercial banking from investment banking. And this happened in Africa before the UK and London the world's financial centre. I'm confident and tonight with the quality on show, my belief is strengthened."

The African Banker Awards is organised by African Banker magazine, IC Events, and BusinessinAfrica Events. It is a landmark event taking place every year during the IMF/World Bank Annual Meetings.

The event brought together around 300 key industry players and top government officials from Africa and around the world to honour the achievements of companies and individuals who have contributed significantly to the reform, modernisation and expansion of the continent's banking and financial system, driving Africa's sustained economic growth in the process.