Banks failing from coast to coast show Africa distress

Johannesburg

AFRICAN banks are sinking deeper into trouble. Drowning in bad debt and swamped by slowing economies, more and more of the continent's lenders are starting to fail. The collapse of a Ugandan bank, said to be an acquisition target of Bob Diamond's Atlas Mara Ltd, is adding to woes stalking the industry from Mozambique to Nigeria. High interest rates, soaring levels of unpaid loans and low commodity prices are just some of the factors felling banks as growth across the world's poorest continent stutters.

Ugandan regulators suspended the board of Crane Bank Ltd and took over operations because the lender was undercapitalised, days after trying to ward off a run on deposits. Nigerian regulators in July replaced the management of the country's eighth-largest bank. Kenya and Zambia both seized some of their smaller banks, Mozambique this month had to stabilise one of its lenders, while Democratic Republic of Congo had to step in for one of its biggest banks.