BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
ZB Bank says its loan book is sitting at around $130 million for all sectors and was aggressively looking at lending to the agricultural sector with focus on products with export potential.
The bank’s chief executive, Ron Mutandagayi, told NewsDay recently that they were looking forward to expanding their loan book.
“Our loan book is sitting at about $130 million at the moment for all sectors of the economy. I think the issue really has been the fact that not many borrowers are coming forward on account of foreign shortages and the increase in business weather,” he said.
“So we would like to expand our book. We are aggressively looking at agricultural products at the moment, particularly the ones that have got export potential,” he said.
Mutandagayi said they were currently disbursing an African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) backed facility for exporters, amounting to $30 million.
“. . . We will see whether we will get off-takers for the full amount…but we will certainly be pushing that because it started enormously, funding export-oriented business so that we earn foreign currency…,” he said.
In its financial results for the year-ending December 31, 2018, ZB Bank announced an after-tax profit of $21,8 million, a 54% improvement on the previous year’s $14,2 million.
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The financial institution managed to grow its total assets from $525,7 million to $ 663,2 million.
Net revenue improved by 21%, from $69 million in 2017 to $83,5m in 2018.
This was underpinned by improved performance in net income from lending activities, net insurance premium income as well as fair value credits on the investment portfolio.
