Barclays Africa CEO Maria Ramos this week denied that she had been approached by her parent company's board to take over from her previous boss, Antony Jenkins, who was fired last month after a fallout over the bank's growth strategy. Ramos said she had "no intention of putting up my hand" for the position.However, some analysts believe she is the likely candidate to head Barclays plc.Patrice Rassou, head of equities at Sanlam Investment Management, expects Ramos to be promoted.His reasoning is that Ramos has a high international profile and, also in her favour, the African operation's contribution to the parent company is set to outstrip the investment banking's contribution soon "and represents a growth vector for the group".Barclays Africa operations contribute about R71-billion (£3.6-billion) in net revenue to its parent company's coffers. Combined with the Middle East, African operations contribute 16% of net group revenue.Kephers Ouya, CEO of asset managers Abnerv Capital, also has his money on Ramos.story_article_left1"She is a seasoned administrator that should be able to steer the ship on course," Ouya said.Ramos, who is ranked 10th in Fortune magazine's list of most powerful women in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for 2014, is the longest-serving banking CEO among the country's big four banks. Since she took over from Steven Booysens in 2009, she has grown the group's return on equity from 13.23 to 16.50.This is despite the fact that several senior executives have resigned and the bank has had a significant drop in customer numbers.Will Bowen, Barclays plc's spokesman, said recently that the group was conducting a thorough internal and external search for a new CEO.When asked whether Ramos was being considered, Bowen said: "We're not speculating on individuals." He said the group was looking for somebody who could accelerate the execution of its strategy.Other strong contenders for the top job are Tushar Morzaria, the group's finance director, and Tom King, Barclays investment banking CEO.story_article_right2Ian Gordon, head of banks research at Investec, believes Morzaria will be tipped over Ramos.The London-based analyst said Morzaria had the skills and ability to effectively manage a further repositioning of the group while delivering short-term financial performance.Yet Ramos was vital to the group's new strategy, Gordon said. "I believe that Barclays will see Ramos as key to executing a successful African growth story, which, for Barclays, has remained an unfulfilled aspiration for a number of years," he said.If Ramos is appointed CEO of the group, it would be a signal that Africa is key to its growth, as was the case when Old Mutual appointed Bruce Hemphill, who headed Liberty, to replace group CEO Julian Roberts.Wayne McCurrie, senior portfolio manager at Momentum Asset Management, said the tone of Barclays' announcement when it fired its former boss, "Saint Anthony" (as he is known in some circles), suggested that it would be looking outside the group for a new CEO as it had said it wanted "new leadership ... to accelerate the pace of execution".Possible outside candidates include Lloyds Bank CEO Antonio Horta-Osorio and Australia and New Zealand Bank CEO Mike Smith...