The unit had progressed from a lossmaker in its first 15 months of business in Nigeria from September 1999 to December 2000 to a profitable venture at present, he said.

"We are still small but we are growing rapidly. There are plans to grow bigger ... and we expect Nigeria to be one of the top three operations in Africa."

With its foothold in Asia, Standard Chartered Bank is in 14 African countries, making it a leading player on the continent.

Cutting said Standard Chartered Nigeria made a loss of $2 million in its first 15 months of business.

However, it made a gross profit of $5 million to December 2002, and $1.5 million a year earlier.

"We are expecting to beat that in 2003," Cutting said, adding that the 2002 result was from operating two branches.

The bank has three branches - one each in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja. There are plans to open two more in Lagos, the commercial capital, by the first quarter of 2004.
A Nigerian head office would also open in Lagos in early 2005, Cutting said.  

Earlier this month, Standard Chartered said it had won a banking licence in South Africa and had bought an online bank there, 20twenty, with a view to entering the retail sector.

Standard Chartered's niche in Nigeria has been in trade finance and foreign exchange, and it has multinational firms, organisations as customers.

But Cutting admitted he faced heavy competition in Nigeria from Citibank and South Africa's Standard Bank, which preceded it in the country. Doing business in the oil-producing but heavily indebted nation could be tough.

Lagos and other cities experience power outages and suffer from a high crime rate, traffic congestion and crumbling social services.

Cutting brushed off fears of a growing crisis in Nigeria's banking sector.

Last week, the Nigerian central bank dismissed the board of a major regional bank, the Bank of the North, which is owned by 19 states in northern Nigeria.

A rescue package has been put together for two other ailing banks.

Nigeria has 90 banks after a crisis led to 36 being closed in the mid-1990s. - Reuters