Standard Bank Sees Bigger Role for Yuan in African Trade

The internationalization of the Chinese currency can play a greater role in strengthening trade and investment between China and Africa while reducing financial costs for businesses, according to senior executives of Standard Bank Group Ltd., the continent’s largest lender by assets.

“Africa needs more energy generation capacity and more transport infrastructure, and we need to manufacture more, including the most basic manufacturing on the continent,” CEO Sim Tshabalala told reporters at the bank’s Beijing office last week. “China needs and plans to shift higher up the manufacturing value chain. It plans to become a more service-oriented economy. And it wants to achieve peak carbon output by 2030 … The mutual benefits are massive.”