Zambia National Commercial Bank Plc (Zanaco) today paid a dividend of K10,503,281.94 to the Government of the Republic of Zambia. This is part of the total dividend of K42,013,132.41 declared after Zanaco’s impressive financial performance for the year ended 2012. This was at a handover ceremony held at the Ministry of Finance in Lusaka.
Receiving the dividend on behalf of the Government, Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda (MP), commended Zanaco Management for growing the Bank from the time of privatisation. He praised the Bank for high level of capitalisation which he said showed commitment by shareholders to grow the Bank by ploughing Bank profits into the institution. Mr. Chikwanda also commended Zanaco for being the most capitalised bank in Zambia with an asset value of about US$1.1 billion. ‘’The high level of capitalisation is not an accident, it means shareholders do not help themselves to hefty dividends but they have been ploughing money into the Bank. We commend you for the way you are growing the Bank. We commend your very diligent men and women for their passion and dutifulness because work ethic is not the strongest point of our culture,’’ Mr. Chikwanda said.
Speaking at the event, Zanaco Managing Director, Mr. Martyn Schouten said the Bank values its partnership with the government of the day which goes beyond the banking business. ‘’We are proud to be associated with developmental projects the government has set out to deliver to the Zambian people. These projects are a perfect fit with our mandate to pay back to communities in which we serve through our Corporate Social Responsibility dubbed Financial Literacy Education, which we expanded to include health care. This can be evidenced by the number of activities and initiatives we put in place aimed at growing sectors that are drivers of the economy such as Agriculture, SMEs ,Education and Health,’’ he said.
Mr. Schouten also mentioned that the bank declared a dividend of K0.00485 per share recording an increase of about 30% from the previous year following the year ended 2012. Mr. Schouten also presented a cheque in the sum K745,299.60 being proceeds from the sale of property. This is in line with the requirement of the shareholders agreement signed between Zanaco, Rabobank and the Government of the Republic of Zambia at the time of privatisation. The Government holds 25% shares in the Bank.
About Zanaco
In April 2007, Rabobank acquired a 49 percent stake in Zambia National Commercial Bank, commonly known as ZANACO, following the Zambian Government’s decision to privatize the bank. In 2008 the bank was listed on the Lusaka Stock Exchange, thus successfully concluding one of Zambia’s largest privatisations. This empowered many Zambians from different walks of life, including the bank’s employees, to become shareholders of their bank, and ensuring it remained “Citizen Owned”. Zanaco is currently owned 46% by Rabobank, 25% by GRZ, while 29% is held by local institutional and private investors and employees. Today the bank boasts a client base of over 600,000 customers from 200,000 pre privatisation, supported by over 1200 employees and a strong asset base of US$1.1 bn.
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Chana Musakanya
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