Africa Had Banking in 951 AD. Yes, Really. The shocking truth about medieval African banking that history books ignore. In 951 AD, Arab geographer Ibn Haukal documented a cheque for 42,000 golden dinars (equivalent to $7 million today) in Ancient Ghana—over 600 years before Europeans developed modern banking systems. According to the Journal of African History, this was part of a sophisticated trans-Saharan trade network where merchants used letters of credit, bills of debt, and complex financia