ZB seeks sustainable revenue streams through partnerships
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) listed financial services provider ZB Financial Holdings said it will continue to build business partnerships that will help provide sustainable revenue streams for the group,
In an update for the six months to June 30, 2023 financials acting chairperson Luxon Zembe said, “The group will continue to develop strategic business partnerships with real sectors of the economy, enhance sustainable revenue streams, especially foreign currency revenues, and take advantage of investment opportunities in order to preserve its capital position against possible loss of value from currency depreciation.”
In this regard, ZB Holdings said it will also continue to consolidate on one-stop-shop Service Centres, as a market differentiator in delivering distinctive quality service to customers.
“In the short term, prudent investment and cost containment measures will continue to be a priority in order to boost profitability. In the medium to long term, the group continues with its digitalization journey with more focus on implementing robust and state-of-the-art core banking and Life Assurance systems in order to enhance efficient product offerings that provide value and convenience to our customers,” Mr Zembe.
The group continued with its organisational transformation program, which is a new customer-centric business model and organisational design that has been adopted, underpinned by digital capacity building.
ZB Holdings chief executive Shepherd Fungura said, “In 2022, 25 bank branches were re-purposed into group-wide customer service centres serving not just banking, but the whole bouquet of banking, insurance and investments services under the #OneZB concept.
“As at 30 June 2023, a further 10 customer service centres had been launched, with the remaining 10 being on course for finalisation in the second half of 2023. Dedicated Premium Service Centres have been established in Harare and Bulawayo, whilst all the other Service Centres across the country also have functionality to offer Premium Service at a limited scale.”
In the period under review, the group entered into a Memorandum of Agreement with the Women Owned Business Trust (WOBT), a trust whose primary purpose is advancing women-owned businesses through capacity building and providing access to markets.
“Under the Agreement, ZBFH is listed as one of the WOBT Supplier Diversity Inclusion Partners (SDI) with the target of ensuring that qualifying WOBT members are onboarded as part of the Group’s suppliers’ listing.”
Financially, the group’s operations continued to be sustainably profitable, posting a profit after tax of $678,5 billion, which is a 2179 percent improvement from the same period last year.
This comes after the group recorded a 796 percent rise in total income from $102,4 billion for the comparable period in 2022, to $917,3 billion.
Mr Fungura “The income performance was mainly on the back of a 3022 percent rise in fair value adjustments, from $14,77 billion last year same period to $461 billion in the period under review.”
He added that a 522 percent improvement in other operating Income, to $340 billion, as well as 257 percent increase in commissions and fees to $68 billion were realized in the half year of 2023.-herald
