The General Director of BGFIBank in São Tomé e Príncipe, Felisberto Castilho, has said negotiations about the Central African bank forming partnerships with Macao banks are at an advanced stage, the Macau News Agency (MNA) reports.

MNA quotes Mr Castilho as saying his bank can help with payments and guarantees in Africa, and get its partners in Macao and in the Guangdong-Hong-Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to make it easier for Africans to make payments in renminbi.

The report says Mr Castilho was speaking in Macao on the sidelines of a meeting of representatives of Macao banks and BGFIBank executives that work in Europe and São Tomé e Príncipe.

The Macao banks represented were Well Link Bank, Tai Fung Bank, Banco Nacional Ultramarino and the Macao branches of Bank of China and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, MNA says.