Dear Valued Shareholders,
On behalf of the Board of Directors I am pleased to present the Zanaco Plc Annual Report.
Every year, the Board Chairman of the Bank has an opportunity to present a report to the Shareholders through this platform. I have the privilege of writing my maiden report to you on the back of a remarkable year. The year 2021 presented opportunities from which value was created and record profitability was achieved. Zanaco is now the number one Bank as measured by profitability, and I am excited at the prospects for the future and our long-term strategy.
We are beginning to realise the key aspects of our 2025 strategy. We delivered superior performance by reaching market leadership in profitability, deposits, client numbers and became the country’s first Bank to hit the K1 billion mark in profit after tax (PAT). The key highlights of the year include:
Growth in Revenue: We grew our revenue by 58% to K3.5 billion.
Growth in PAT: Profit After Tax grew by 343% to K1 billion.
Earnings per share increased by 343% to K0.720 per share.
Actively Growing our client base and channels: We remained focused on achieving our 2025 vision by growing customer numbers to over 2.7 million while at the same time repositioning our client solutions approach to serve our customers better.
We continue to realise value from identified opportunities in the market by constantly repositioning the business in line with our mandate. We believe the Bank is well positioned to deliver the promises of its ambition to be the top transaction customer-centric bank by 2025.
Financial Performance
As stated earlier, the Bank’s performance was excellent all-round in 2021. The PAT achieved was in line with our strategy.
The balance sheet was further strengthened by a 35% growth year-on-year.
The Bank remains adequately capitalised and is above the statutory requirements and internal risk limit thresholds on both Basel I and Basel II computations.
Risk Management
The Bank continues to take calculated risks, consciously and methodically within its approved risk appetite to deliver its strategic and business objectives.
The Bank has continued to promote and drive a strong risk culture by prioritising risk management, and acknowledging its criticality in the financial and operational management of the business.
Business Resilience
Operational resilience remains the Bank’s priority through seamless adaptation to any manner of disruption be it pandemic, cyber and natural disasters. The Bank has made significant investment in its resilience infrastructure leveraging off electronic channels for transactability purposes.
Pandemic times have tested the Bank’s recovery plans in the event of COVID infections. In 2021, the Bank provided for COVID testing and vaccination for staff and clients through the ‘Bankccination’ program. We also tested our systems to ensure technical resilience as we continued to support our clients with minimal disruption. We will continue to credibly deliver on our brand value of accessibility through our branch network and digital channels.
Boosting Innovation and Investing in the Long Term
We remain dedicated to innovation that delivers new value to the Bank and its customers. In the last 52 years, we have led the momentum for innovative ways of doing business that have created value for our clients, communities and the Bank as demonstrated by a number of firsts that we have achieved.
Governance and Board Evaluation
The Board continues to comply with the highest levels of corporate governance as it provides leadership to management.
As best practice and in compliance with the Bank of Zambia Corporate Governance Directives, the Board undertook its annual evaluation process in the fourth quarter of 2021 to assess its performance. The results of the Board evaluation were satisfactory, further all recommendations from the prior year were fully implemented with no carry over findings. The evaluation also confirmed the level of adherence to corporate governance principles.
Board of Directors Changes
Towards the end of the year, the Arise B.V nominated board members, Ms. Mirjam t’Lam and Mr. Len De Villiers were retired from the Board effective 15th November and 1st October 2021 respectively. Following the retirements, Arise B.V has nominated Mr. Deepak Malik and Mr. Leslie Horne, whose appointments will be tabled before the upcoming Annual General Meeting for approval.
Appreciation
On behalf of the Board of Directors and indeed on my own behalf, I would like to thank our clients, management and staff for their continued commitment to Zanaco and the stellar performance in 2021. I would also like to thank each of the Directors for the leadership and support to the Management Team as well as for their commitment to improving shareholder value.
This AGM marks the end of my tenure as a director and Board Chairman of the Bank. The Board has a robust talent and succession planning framework in which processes and pipelines for Director succession are established. I am confident that as I bid farewell, the Bank will remain in competent hands and will build on the successes we have achieved so far.
I thank you, our shareholders, for the support and confidence you have given me over the years. It has been an absolute pleasure to be a Director and Board Chairman of Zanaco Bank PLC. God bless us all.
Hastings Mtine
Chairman
Zanaco 2021 Annual Report.pdf
Zanaco – Full Notice and Agenda of 2022 AGM.pdf
