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RBZ licenses 10 more microfinanciers

Business
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has licensed 10 more microfinanciers as it moves to deepen the financial inclusion thrust.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has licensed 10 more microfinanciers as it moves to deepen the financial inclusion thrust.

BY BUSINESS REPORTER

In a notice yesterday, RBZ said it had licensed seven moneylenders and three credit only microfinance institutions. This brings the total number of licensed microfinanciers to 173 as at September 30.

Microfinance institutions have been actively lending to individuals and companies as banks cut back on lending due to the harsh economic environment which has spawned a high loan default rate.

According to statistics from RBZ, total loans for the microfinance sector were $183,4 million as a June 30 down from $1,87m realised as at December 31, 2015.

RBZ said as at June 30, the microfinance sector was highly concentrated, with the top 20 microfinance institutions controlling 86,97% of total microfinance sector loans.

“While productive lending is still below consumptive lending, the sector has registered notable re-orientation of the microfinance lending portfolios towards productive lending. Consumptive lending declined from 70,9% of total loans in 2013 to 54,0% as at June 30 2016,” RBZ said.

As at June 30, the microfinance sector had 600 branches countrywide up from 571 braches as at December 2015.

The number of active clients were 251 553 from 2020 242 as at December 2015.