Bob Diamond, the former Barclays chief executive, said his London-listed African banking vehicle is looking to more than double its reported earnings in 2017, after a "challenging" macroeconomic environment hit profits in 2016.

Atlas Mara, which was set up to buy banking assets in Africa, reported a 25% fall in net profit to $8.4 million in 2016, from $11.3 million in 2015. It would have reported net profit of $14.9 million without the drop in the value of the Mozambique metical and Nigerian naira, among other African currencies, against the US dollar in 2016, the firm said in its full-year earnings statement today.