The Zambia National Commercial Bank ( ZANACO) has described 2019 as a very successful year that saw the banking institution recorded a total profit of two hundred million Kwacha the highest in history of the bank.
Addressing the press in Lusaka Bank Chief Executive Officer Henk Mulder, said in the year under review the bank also saw the highest number of bank transactions among the 18 commercial banks in the country.
Mr. Mulder said the bank also made positive strides particularly in its digital ambitions resulting in the bank registering more than five thousand two hundred Xpress agents and more than fifteen million transactions through the agents and merchants.
“2019 was an exciting year for us; we became a group of companies, bringing Zanaco Football Club limited under Zanaco to create value for the bank through sports activities to entrench high levels of good governance and to fulfill requirements of the world football governing body FIFA,” He said.
“We also established digital shared services limited to drive a cost effective shared digital platform for all digital payments.”
He added that the Bank’s customer deposit has increased by 32 percent over the last 3 years, and the growth was 4 percent faster than the industry average of 28 percent in the same period.
And Bank Board Chairperson, Charity Lumpa said 2019 posed a lot of challenges from the macro-economic environment that had deteriorated to its lowest levels with the inflation rate above 6-8 percent target range at the end of the year.
Ms. Lumpa added that despite the regulatory restrictions on unwarranted fees and the raising of the statutory reserve ratio and monetary policy rate by the Bank of Zambia (BOZ) the bank still posted a profit after tax of two hundred million Kwacha.
She further said the achievements and more resulted in the bank being named as the best bank in Zambia by Global Finance.
“When we say we are big, you must believe it,2019 saw us recording the highest number of transactions amount the 18 banks in the country,” she said.