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Ecobank targets 11 branches

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BULAWAYO — The new player in the country’s banking sector, Ecobank, yesterday said it will open 11 branches in Zimbabwe by the end of this year.

BULAWAYO — The new player in the country’s banking sector, Ecobank, yesterday said it will open 11 branches in Zimbabwe by the end of this year.

Report by Khanyile Mlotshwa Business Reporter Speaking at the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) breakfast meeting, the area manager John Mahanya said the bank had opened its second branch in Bulawayo and had faith in the country’s second largest city as a market.

  “Ecobank has two branches in Bulawayo,” he said.

  “We know that a lot of people are not upbeat about Bulawayo, but we have faith.

  “We have six branches in the country, four in Harare and two in Bulawayo.

  “By the end of the year, we are aiming at having 11 branches countrywide.”

  Mahanya said Ecobank was an African bank “by Africans and our strategy is Africa”.

  “We are a Pan-African bank and Ecobank Zimbabwe (EBZ) is a Zimbabwean bank with links to a Pan-African bank,” he said.

  “We have a number of products as a result of our knowledge of the African market.”

  EBZ is a subsidiary of Ecobank Transnational, the Pan-African bank with headquarters in Togo and a presence in over 30 African countries.

  In January last year, Ecobank Transnational acquired majority shareholding in Premier Finance group at a price of $10 million.

  Following the change in ownership, the institution rebranded to Ecobank Zimbabwe in May 2011.

  It also requested and was granted permission to change its merchant banking licence to a commercial banking licence.

  The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe granted EBZ a commercial banking licence effective May this year.