Qatar National Bank (QNB) on Thursday bought a 12.5 percent stake in Ecobank for about $200 million, its latest purchase in a drive to be the biggest bank in the Middle East and Africa by 2017.

QNB bought the shares from Nigeria’s state-owned “bad bank” Asset Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON). AMCON acquired the Ecobank stake when the pan-African lender merged its Nigerian operations with Oceanic Bank, a failed lender that AMCON helped recapitalise.

It is the Qatari lender’s second African purchase in the past two years. In March 2013, it bought Societe Generale’s Egyptian business for $2 billion and the bank is also present in Libya, Mauritania, South Sudan, Sudan and Tunisia.

Ecobank spokesman Richard Uku confirmed the AMCON share sale. He said QNB was now the second-largest shareholder in the pan-African lender after South Africa’s state-owned Public Investment Corporation Ltd.

Stockbrokers told Reuters $200 million of Ecobank shares were transferred to QNB on Thursday at 20.01 naira each, an 18 percent premium to Ecobank’s latest price of 17 naira.

A source familiar with the matter said Morgan Stanley had advised QNB on the deal.

“This deal is much much bigger than a Qatar bank taking a stake in Ecobank. We could see a wave of Middle East money coming into African banks,” said Akinbamidele Akintola, Africa Equity Sales executive at Renaissance Capital.

QNB has said it wants to become the largest bank in the Middle East and Africa by 2017. At the moment, it is second in terms of assets to South Africa’s Standard Bank.