THE Deposit Protection Corporation (DPC) is still in the process of securing assets for AfrAsia Kingdom Holdings, while bids for the collapsed bank’s MicroKing business are yet to be worked on.
BY VICTORIA MTOMBA
In an interview, DPC’s chief executive officer John Chikura said the bank was under provisional liquidation and the corporation could not do anything on the assets of the bank at the moment. “We are in the process of securing all the assets,” Chikura said.
“When we get into final liquidation, we will let you know. The process of getting tenders for MicroKing has been done by AfrAsia, but we will do our own process in terms of the law.” He said the corporation had been working on provisional liquidation of the financial institution for some time and was still busy with the process.
“I cannot tell you when we will be getting into final liquidation,” Chikura said. Six companies, including local and regional players, have submitted bids to acquire MicroKing — the microfinance unit for AfrAsia Kingdom Holdings.
The bids were submitted to the central bank and the adjudication process was underway. The six companies include a Zambian firm owned by the Finance Bank of Zambia chairman Rajan Lekhraj Mahtani, who indicated that he wanted to buy AfrAsia and its assets. Innscor was also one of the bidders. Sources said the move to start the bidding process afresh would affect the depositors and companies as the process would take longer than anticipated.
This means that the investors who were ready to invest might find another suitable venture. The United Kingdom’s Department for International Development said it had investments amounting to $800 000 in MicroKing.
Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa recently said the government would bend rules to save MicroKing from collapse as the microfinance company was assisting the informal sector. MicroKing has been lending finance to medium and small-scale enterprises.
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Since 2009, the microfinance channelled over $200 million to SMEs. Micro lending has become an important feature in lending in the country as the economy is now dominated by the informal sector. The country’s formal sector takes up to 20% of the economy, while the rest was in the informal sector.
