Burkinabe tycoon Idrissa Nassa's Coris Bank sets up Cameroon unit as it pushes into Central Africa

Coris Bank International, the Burkinabè group built by Idrissa Nassa, has incorporated a subsidiary in Cameroon and named its leadership, moving a step closer to entering Central Africa's largest banking market as it awaits regulatory approval.

The new unit, Coris Bank International Cameroon, was set up as a joint-stock company, according to local press reports. Its creation follows the banking licence application the group filed with Cameroonian authorities several months ago and puts a legal and governance structure in place ahead of any launch.

The subsidiary cannot open its doors yet. Coris must still secure clearance from the Central African Banking Commission, known as COBAC, and from Cameroon's finance ministry before it can operate. COBAC also signs off on senior banking appointments across the region.

Coris has already assembled the leadership team. Alice Dakuyo Kaboré will chair the board, with Lionel Wenceslas Ouedraogo Parengmanba as chief executive and Ling Namou as his deputy. The board also includes Iboudo Ablasse Wend-Gouda, Nassa Abdoul Aziz, Kouame Jean-Baptiste Patrick Ghislain, Mahamat Moustapha Masri and Kotto Ndoumbe Samuel.

If approved, Coris would become roughly the 20th bank in Cameroon, and one of the few West African-owned lenders in a market long dominated by French and pan-African groups, Moroccan subsidiaries, local banks and state-owned institutions. Cameroon is the biggest economy and banking market in the six-nation Central African Economic and Monetary Community, or CEMAC, and accounts for a large share of the bloc's banking assets.

The move is being made easier by a rule change. Since the start of 2025, CEMAC has operated a single banking licence that lets any lender already authorised in one member state expand into the others, subject to COBAC approval. Coris already runs a business in Chad, which it built by taking over Société Générale's local operation, giving it a foothold in the bloc it can use to push into Cameroon.

Getting into Cameroon has not been simple. Coris previously tried to buy Société Générale's Cameroonian subsidiary and was blocked by local authorities. The current approach, building a new bank from scratch under the single-licence regime, is a way around that earlier setback.

The group appears to be preparing for a quick start once cleared. Coris recently held a meeting at its Ouagadougou headquarters to discuss plugging the future Cameroonian unit into Gimacpay, the region's shared payments platform. To win customers, the bank is expected to lean on corporate lending, digital banking, interoperable payments and Islamic finance.

The Cameroon push is part of a broader march across the continent by Nassa. He founded Coris Bank in 2008 with about $3 million in capital and has since grown it into one of West Africa's largest banking groups, with assets now above $9 billion and a presence in more than a dozen countries, among them Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, Togo, Benin, Guinea, Niger and Guinea-Bissau. Coris Holding, which Nassa controls, owns close to two-thirds of the bank.

Much of that growth has come from buying businesses that others were leaving. Coris took over Standard Chartered's retail operation in Côte d'Ivoire in 2023 and Société Générale's unit in Chad the following year, and in January it completed the takeover of Banco Comercial do Atlântico, one of Cape Verde's largest lenders, lifting its stake to a controlling position.

The bank has kept up a strong financial run alongside the deals. Coris reported a 22 percent rise in net profit in the first quarter of 2026, extending years of double-digit growth, and has secured fresh credit lines from regional development banks to expand lending to small and medium-sized businesses, which make up the bulk of its loan book.

Nassa has become one of the region's most prominent bankers. He was named the Africa CEO Forum's chief executive of the year in 2025, and has diversified the wider Coris group beyond banking into mining, manufacturing and fuel distribution, including the purchase of TotalEnergies' downstream assets in Burkina Faso.

Central Africa is now the next frontier. Beyond Cameroon, Nassa has signalled interest in Gabon and has looked at opportunities elsewhere in the region, part of a strategy to carry the dominance Coris has built in the West African monetary union into the neighbouring CEMAC bloc.

The Cameroon subsidiary is still a shell until the regulators act. Whether Coris can turn its new legal entity into a working bank, and take on entrenched competitors in a crowded market, will depend on how quickly COBAC and the finance ministry give their blessing, and on how well a West African newcomer can win over Cameroonian customers.