LIVINGSTONE MARUFU
Listed financial services group, NMB Zimbabwe (NMBZ) says it will leverage the networks of its offshore shareholders to access credit lines and new markets for its customers.
The perceived country’s risk has been a challenge for local banks in accessing lines of credit for on lending to its customers. Where lines of credit are available, they come at a huge cost.
NMBZ group CEO, Gerald Gore, told Business Times that the international connection has helped the institution during the trying times and this has helped it to keep afloat.
“[We] will continue to leverage on the strength of [our] foreign shareholders [Arise, African Century and AfricInvest] and their network of banks in Africa to deepen their service offering,” Gore said.
He said Arise is headquartered in Cape Town but it is registered in the Netherlands and owned by three institutions—FMO, Rabobank and Norfund.
“FMO is the developmental bank in the Netherlands which is owned by the government there and at the last count their total assets were about €9.6bn.
“The second one is Rabobank in the Netherlands which is one of the three biggest banks in that country and is very strong in agriculture and the last assets count was €666bn and the Norfund which is owned by the Norwegian government and its purpose is to support the private sector in developing countries.”
Arise is a shareholder in the Ecobank group, Equity Bank in Kenya, Zanaco in Zambia, NMB Tanzania, DFCU in Uganda, Calbank in Ghana and two banks in Mozambique, Gore said.
“The reason I talked about this is that because NMBZ is part of this network so for any of our customers who want to do regional integration it means that through that network, NMBZ can help you and support you to get into that market,” he said.
He added: “When you want to go regional we have partners in these markets.”
In its financial results for the six months to June 30, 2022, profit for NMBZ grew to ZWL$1.7bn from ZWL$715m achieved in the prior comparative period.
Total assets for the group increased by 8.01% to close the period at ZWL$69.41bn from ZWL$64.26bn reported in the same period last year.
Loans and advances closed the period at ZWL$22.83bn, up 4.34% from December 2021 levels.
The group continued to take a measured approach to risk, as evidenced by the strong asset quality with a non-performing loans ratio of 1.22% compared to 1.39% as at December 31 2021.
NMBZ net charge for expected credit losses was ZWL$259m for the period under review.
Deposits and other liabilities grew by 4.47% from December 2021 levels and this was largely reflecting the impact of the exchange rate depreciation on US$ deposits.
