Nigeria’s economic reforms have improved transparency that has helped restore confidence in Africa’s most populous nation after years of stagnation. In this exclusive interview, Patricia Sullivan, managing director, Global Head Institutional Cash Management at Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, described how the lender has been instrumental in connecting growth regions with correspondent banking solutions, Deutsche Bank’s long-standing relationship with Nigeria as well as how the various policies of the government are stabilising the economy. BusinessDay’s Lolade Akinmurele and Wasiu Alli bring the excerpts:
What role do you play at Deutsche Bank and how does the bank support growth in Nigeria?
I’ve spent significant time travelling around the world. But this is my first time in our Deutsche Bank Lagos Representative Office. And as you know, we have a long history of presence in the country, going back to 1978. We also have a rep office in Cairo and a branch in Johannesburg. So Deutsche Bank not only has an extensive network in sub-Saharan Africa, but maintains a presence as well. I took over the institutional cash management business at the beginning of 2024 and it was the start of reopening our correspondent banking business and our growth to support greater financial inclusion in the markets that we cover. Before 2024, Deutsche Bank was going through a significant period of remediation and we weren’t comfortable expanding the business at that time.
Now we have a very strong control framework allowing us to grow. One of our growth markets is here, building on the significant business we already have with a large number of banks in Nigeria. We also support the subsidiaries of many of these banks that are headquartered here in other countries, not just in Africa, but also outside the continent.
Cross-correspondent banking is the lifeblood of society. It provides prosperity and commerce to communities all over. This is how these communities get access to U.S. dollars, euros, and any other number of currencies. So Deutsche Bank is the number one euro provider in the world and also a top USD provider.
You’re probably familiar with the de-risking that went on in certain countries in the region and the significant impact on the communities that those financial institutions serve. If you get cut out of the financial sector, you’re not able to offer your clients payment needs that need to go overseas, including trade payments that need to be paid overseas, and it can really shut down families and businesses. So, we are doing a significant amount of work to keep our ecosystem safely banked. But part of our approach is to grow safely and sustainably, and that means really making sure that not only do we have the right controls, but that we partner with our banks to keep their standards safe and secure as well, and share the risk between ourselves.
At Deutsche Bank, we know the importance of sharing, cooperation, connectivity, and working in a way that is transparent and partnering to preserve the financial systems that we’re serving. We have an advisory capacity as part of our DBX platform called the Ecosystem of Risk Management, a concept that brings us together to ensure we collectively manage risk rather than move risk across the financial institutions and systems.
And in this approach, we really want to try and ensure that if an issue arises, we’re not running away from it or trying to move it to a different bank or keep it within the financial system. Our approach is to partner with our clients, industry, law enforcement, and regulators to ensure that we fix the issue, we disrupt financial crime, and we eliminate the risk from the financial system. To do this, we’ve established capacity internally, governed by an enhanced risk appetite that is really serving as our rules of the road.
We’re guided by our risk appetite parameters and we share these parameter details with all of our clients and prospects, and together we work jointly to ensure that that ecosystem of risk management flourishes.
In its nearly five decades of existence in Nigeria, how has Deutsche Bank facilitated financing for key infrastructure growth?
The cash and trade services we’re providing to banks in Nigeria are just one part of a suite of services that Deutsche Bank has been providing to this country for many decades.
In 2025, Deutsche Bank acted as global coordinator to structure a USD747m syndicated loan to finance construction of the first phase of its planned 700-km coastal highway project. So we have a “Hausbank”approach where we want to be able to provide all of the core services that our clients need. In addition, we also support our corporate clients, many of whom are headquartered in Europe and see Nigeria as a core trading partner. Keeping that network strong is very important to us.
What would you say has been the impact of the currency reforms that Nigeria has implemented since 2023? Have the reforms restored Nigeria on the global map?
I think the reforms have been a significant improvement in further opening up the country to globalisation. Some of the negative impacts, for example when exchange restrictions were too limited, led to financial crime risk with efforts to intentionally evade local controls and reporting requirements for what was legitimate business.
Reforms leading to a more rational environment is definitely positive from our perspective so that access and safety are achieved. If I may, it actually allowed a sense of organisation in the system of transactions, because with the FX caps that were in place, people who needed to access currency for good business were doing this in an underground way to try to import, export, to try to support socioeconomic. The perception that this gave to the world is that there’s an underground banking system and systemic lack of transparency.
But in fact, it was just good people, good businesses trying to promote access to markets and goods and so on in Nigeria. So it really has opened up the Nigerian market and really changed the perception that international banks had.
In addition, it reduces the false positive investigative flow that banks were undertaking, because banks would look at the way payments were structured and flood law enforcement gates with information that really was not unusual, but just because the structure and nature of the payment was kind of questionable in relation to local FX requirements. Reforms have in turn alleviated the pressure amongst international banks and enabled law enforcement around the world to more accurately aim at financial crime in the way that they’re doing it today.
There’s been a flurry of positive news in Nigeria recently. The First Abu Dhabi Bank, for instance, which happens to be one of your partners as well, is opening an office in Nigeria. Does it mean the reforms are luring in foreign investors?
Yeah. I mean, Nigeria is growing in leaps and bounds. Also, with the geopolitical shifts that are happening, you see more trade partners moving here, and it makes sense that other banks would now want to develop a presence here. So, we’re likely to see even more banks follow – I wouldn’t be surprised.
We’re happy to say we have a longstanding history here and know the market very well, and that’s something our clients really rely on. Plus, our Deutsche Bank global network is vast, and that opens up access to corporates and businesses here to get access to other corridors around the globe. But I expect that you’re not only going to see that here in Nigeria, but in some of the other countries in West Africa that are very rich in minerals and other natural resources.
Foreign direct investments remain key for the economy to grow sustainably but that has been slow to react to the reforms. Is Deutsche bank seeing considerable interest from its FDI partners in terms of just setting up in Nigeria?
As I mentioned, Deutsche Bank does a lot of investment to support major projects here, as well as working with our corporate clients headquartered outside of Nigeria who are facilitating business with Nigerian counterparties and they rely on Deutsche Bank to create that access and the necessary support to grow businesses here. So international investments are coming back and more multinationals will move in if current development continues. I think it’s also a factor not only of the growth potential in this country, but also the reforms that have taken place at the government level. Not only what you’ve already mentioned in terms of FX, but in terms of the country really strengthening its anti-money laundering and counterterror financing rules and regulations that provide comfort for businesses to operate and invest here and reflected in the country being removed from the FATF grey list in October last year. And I think the central bank has been a very strong proponent of creating a safe and sound infrastructure to support our direct investment.
Do you see any risk hindering investment inflows? What are the bottlenecks that you see that might deter capital allocation into the country?
Well, I can’t really predict the future, but I think as you see every day there’s a new headline with different shifts in geopolitics, so it’s something that we closely watch. We’re super excited about some of the shifts in terms of more businesses wanting to look at trading partners here in West Africa and Southern Africa. And we think that will help the growth trajectory for these countries, but also open up portfolios outside to new opportunities.
What more would you advise that the government does in addition to the reforms that we’ve already implemented to ensure that Nigeria is one of those countries that really benefits from these geopolitical shifts that we’re seeing?
I think the moves that are currently being made with keeping a very safe infrastructure to fight financial crime is really top of mind. Nothing, I think, will turn away business faster than the perception that those types of strong controls are not in place. I think also the work that the Central Bank does to promote fiscal soundness is also really key and managing the currency provides a lot of comfort to outside investors and businesses. About Nigeria, I think of it as the top tier in the region, a country that has been booming for a long time, more advanced than so many other markets in Africa and even in the world, honestly. I think about the connectivity Nigeria has with the world, direct flights to different centres, access and so on. The pace of change here as the world evolves, to me, calls for the need for that standard to be reinforced in a tremendous way.
You will see other players start to show up. You will see people want to take advantage of natural resources, access to human capital. In one way, my view is that Nigeria needs this. It needs to support the poverty to affluent ratio, becoming more equal. So that will promote jobs and the nature of connectivity across the country. It will also help pursue support, financial literacy and much more for the underbanked communities. I think the work that the government has done to promote digitisation and mobile banking has really helped Nigeria leapfrog over other countries. That penetration really does support the unbanked and provides greater access to trade and all sorts of commerce.
Many countries don’t have that. And that’s something that is definitely encouraged to keep on going and maintain leadership in that space. And then it enables the Fintechs and the payment aggregators to operate here. They also know they’re operating in a strong regulatory environment, which is important and will continue to promote greater financial inclusion.
You spoke earlier about the support that Deutsche Bank tries to provide in terms of infrastructure projects. Are you having conversations with the government about doing something similar for other infrastructure projects?
We are committed to playing an active role in providing more financing for infrastructure projects. Because we believe that’s one key success to develop capital.
When was the last time you provided financing at that scale for any infrastructure project in Nigeria?
Deutsche Bank is also a strategic provider for Export Credit Agency (ECA)-backed financings. In Nigeria, we are involved in various ECA-financings (e.g. energy sector). We believe ECA-financings have a number of real upsides- particularly for emerging market economies like Nigeria. The borrower benefits from attractive interest rates and long tenors.
Due to the government’s tremendous work in restructuring the economy and providing confidence, it is now possible that large scale infrastructure projects can be realized. I think that is one of the biggest achievements.
To support our consideration, we look at the rating agencies and the trajectory. We see a lot of stable and positive outcomes. And while watching ratings is one thing it’s only a snapshot. The question is always where are we going and everyone wants to stay on a positive course. That’s really what is always top of mind.
We look at the entire picture from an economic, scientific, academic perspective. We support development, access and safety and Deutsche Bank is very committed to Nigeria and we have lots of experience having been here since 1978 and our commitment is stronger than ever before. Deutsche Bank has a lot of institutional know-how in West Africa and Nigeria and our senior management is very committed to the country.
