First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) has announced plans to open a representative office in Lagos, marking its first physical entry into sub-Saharan Africa as part of a broader strategy to deepen its footprint across the continent.
The disclosure was made at the Investopia Africa event held in Lagos, where senior executives of First Abu Dhabi Bank said the new office will serve Nigeria and the wider West African region, positioning the bank closer to key markets and large-scale investment opportunities.
FAB, the largest bank in the United Arab Emirates by assets, said the decision followed an extensive strategic review and reflects growing confidence in Africa’s long-term economic prospects, particularly Nigeria’s role as a financial and commercial hub. Lagos was chosen because of its status as West Africa’s largest city, its concentration of multinational corporations, and its central role in trade, finance, and infrastructure development.
Although the Lagos office will initially operate as a representative office—focusing on relationship management, deal origination, and market coordination—it is expected to support cross-border financing, trade finance, and advisory services for corporate and sovereign clients across the region. The move also brings FAB closer to African governments and private sector players seeking large-ticket funding for infrastructure, energy, logistics, and industrial projects.
The expansion builds on FAB’s growing involvement in Nigeria’s infrastructure space. Recently, the bank partnered with African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to help finance parts of the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway, a major federal government project designed to improve connectivity along Nigeria’s southern corridor and stimulate trade, tourism, and industrial growth. The financing package is reported to run into hundreds of millions of dollars, underscoring FAB’s appetite for large-scale African projects.
FAB currently operates in more than 20 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas, with an existing presence in North African markets such as Egypt and Libya. The Lagos office extends that network into sub-Saharan Africa for the first time, signalling a deliberate shift toward faster-growing emerging markets.
The announcement also aligns with deepening economic ties between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates, as both countries seek to expand trade, investment flows, and financial cooperation. Analysts say the arrival of a major Gulf-based bank could help unlock new sources of foreign capital for Nigeria at a time when the country is pushing to close infrastructure gaps and attract long-term investment.
For Nigeria, FAB’s entry is being viewed as a vote of confidence in the country’s economic reforms and its position as a gateway to West Africa. For FAB, it represents a strategic foothold in a region with vast infrastructure needs, a young population, and rising demand for sophisticated banking and financing solutions.
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