In 2007 the Government of the Republic of Zambia (GRZ) sold a 49% stake in the Bank to Rabo Financial Institutions Development B.Y(RFID) a subsidiary of the AAA rated Cooperative Central Raiffeisen Boerenleenbank (Rabobank) of the Netherlands. Subsequently RFID sold a 3.41% stake to Lizara Investments Limited (a nominee of the Zambia National Farmers Union - ZNFU) followed by the Bank’s Initial Public Offering in 2008 and Employee Share Ownership Programme (ESOP). Most of our 1 338 staff are also shareholders in Zanaco and together with their families have a direct interest and stake in the long term success of Zanaco. They are empowered, motivated and committed to make the difference. The Bank remains majority owned by Zambians and thus is considered “citizen owned”.
Our customers are fully representative of Zambia as a whole; from Government to the private sector, from multinationals to SMEs, from industrial and mining to agriculture and from civil servants to salaried workers. Reaching out to the unbanked, Zanaco can truly be considered the” People’s Bank”. Our staff remain our pride and our priority, with employees undergoing training in relevant areas of the business such as customer service delivery, credit risk management and operations. This is part of our vision to build capacity by developing the necessary competencies within our workforce.
A portion of training and support has been provided in collaboration with Rabobank and with other partners, who commit to offering Zanaco continuous support in identified areas. We aim to be leaders in our selected market segments of Retail, Food & Agriculture, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Government. Simultaneously, we continue to expand our footprint in the Corporate and Treasury segments, commensurate with our market position and size. Zanaco has introduced innovative first ever e-products such as XAPIT, thereby reaching a cross section of a previously unbanked population. These affordable products have a minimum balance and so allow us to contribute to financial inclusiveness in the country.