PHILLIMON MHLANGA
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) will carry out an assessment to ascertain if ZB Financial Holdings Limited (ZBFHL) has complied with the corrective order it issued five years ago, it has been learnt.
The central bank in 2017 raised disquiet over the financial services group’s risk management, governance issues, legacy shareholding issues, compliance, processes and control issues, among many other issues.
Group CEO, Shepherd Fungura who told Business Times on the sidelines of the CEO Africa Roundtable conference held in Victoria Falls last week that he was confident the corrective order would be lifted.
“The corrective order is in the process of being reviewed because we made submissions to the RBZ. We fixed all of the issues save for the issue around shareholding which we engaged the regulator, RBZ,” Fungura told Business Times.
He added: “We do and are quite confident that should they come as we have requested them to have an inspection then we should have our corrective order lifted shortly.”
Fungura said the issues raised have already been dealt with and “we have put in frameworks and policies in place so that we are ready to comply, and we have a sound trade environment”.
“We also fix our governance which they raised to ensure that we are embracing best practices. Now, what we are waiting for is for them to come and do a review and see that we are now in the space they expect us to be and I am sure they will lift the corrective orders,” he said.
In its financial results for the six months to June 30, 2022, ZB reported a 165% increase in profit to ZWL$6.069bn from ZWL$2.287bn attained in the prior comparative period.
Total income grew 147% to ZWL$20.877bn in the reviewed period from ZWL$8.446bn in 2021 owing to a 1 039% rise in other operating income, which rose to ZWL$11.148bn in June 2022 from ZWL$0.979bn in June 2021.
Commissions and fees also rose to ZWL$3.885bn in the period under review from ZWL$3.353bn in June 2021, reflecting a 16% increase.
Interest income rose by 55%, to ZW$4.106bn in 2022 from ZW$2.649bn in 2021.
Fair value adjustments also contributed significantly, rising by 99% to ZWL$3.012bn in June 2022 from ZWL$1.513bn in June 2021.
