JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African lender Nedbank reported a 26 percent jump in half-year profit on Tuesday, helped by a recovery in its west African associate, Ecobank.

Nedbank owns about 16 percent of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), which is a recovering from weak investment and consumer spending in the commodity-rich west African region.

Diluted headline EPS, the primary measure of profit in South Africa that excludes certain one-off items, came in at 1,387 cents in the six months through the end of June compared with 1,098 cents a year earlier.

“While risks remain, it is expected that the actions taken to improve ETI’s financial position and governance, along with an improving macroeconomic environment, will continue to drive an improved financial performance in 2018,” Nedbank said in a results filing.

Reporting by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by Ed Stoddard