Zambia aims for industrial status
ABSA Bank Zambia has set aside K120 million to re-modernise its branches across the country as it brings stiff competition in the banking sector.
Out of the K120 million, Absa has spent K5 million on Mutaba branch in Lusaka which opened doors to clients yesterday.
Absa Bank Zambia Head of Retail Banking, Hatton Maliki, said the institution was re-modernising branches across the country which came with improved facilities and service delivery.
Mr Maliki said yesterday during the official opening of the Mutaba branch that about K120 million to remodernise all the branches across the country. "We have put in K5 million to re-modernise this branch. In the past, branches used to be way expensive than this but because of the change in the architecture that we have done, the cost has significantly reduced.
"Under normal circumstances it should have cost us about K12 million K13 million," he added.
Mr Maliki said Absa would next week open other branches such as Longacres.
He said that Livingstone, Kitwe City Square and Ndola which were temporarily closed for re-modernisation would open days.
"In the next 60 days we will open Kitwe City Square and we will also open Livingstone. After another 60 days we will then open the Ndola branch. The five key branches. We are doing a new branch in Petauke and Cosmopolitan," Mr Maliki said.Absa Managing Director, Mizinga Melu, emphasised that the institution would continue supporting the Zambian economy and take banking to a new level.
"One of our promises is that we will continue to be a digitally led bank. We will continue bringing those solutions that embrace what our values are and that embrace what Absa is and that is getting things done," she said.
Ms Melu explained that Absa had increased Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to six from the previous four at Mutaba.
"Today is another exciting day where we are opening our digitally led branch. I do not think there is any branch in the country and probably on the continent that is as beautiful as Mutaba branch.
"We now have six ATMs and before we had two and just across the road we have another six ATMs So within the same area we have 12 ATMs. You can also buy your insurance when you are here," Ms Melu said. in the next 60
ZAMBIA has prioritised the industrialisation policy as a key driver of economic development, Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister Christopher Yaluma has said.
Mr Yaluma said Zambia was committed to achieving the industrialisation status as envisaged in the country’s 7th National Development Plan.
The Minister was speaking in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia when he held a bilateral meeting with Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of African Export and Import Bank.
Mr Yaluma said Zambia was pursuing the agenda in order to be competitive especially when the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA) would come into force in July this year.
He said Government had already put in mechanisms such as the establishment of the industrial parks to realise the agenda of industrialisation.
Government, he said, had placed a high premium on agriculture, tourism and construction as sectors that were key to help grow the economy and to reduce dependency on copper.
And Oramah said the bank was committed to entering into partnerships with countries like Zambia where a strong economic base existed.
He echoed the Minister’s sentiments on the need to create industrial parks as the bank was interested in funding such initiatives.
Dr Oramah said it was important for member countries to industrialise as the CFTA market would provide the largest market available.
This is according to a statement issued by Inutu Mwanza, the First Secretary for Press and Tourism at the Zambian Embassy in Ethiopia.