For the third consecutive year, Zanaco has maintained its position as the top performing bank in Zambia, announcing stellar results for the 2023 financial year that saw it post market-leading Profit After Tax, with shareholders declaring the bank’s highest ever dividend in its 55-year history.
Zanaco Interim Board Chairperson Mrs. Regina Mulenga announced after the bank’s 54th Annual General Meeting yesterday that the bank ended 2023 as the top performing bank for the third year running, with its revenue growing by 34% to cross the K5 billion mark at K5.28 billion, and net Profit After Tax growing by 49% to hit K1.74 billion. This is the highest Profit After Tax in the Zambian financial industry as per prudential results published.
Mrs. Mulenga said the strong performing was based on “strong customer relationships, investment strategies implemented by Treasury, and credit origination strategies executed by the operating businesses, withing a defined risk appetite”.
“With the performance that we recorded in our 2023 financial year, I’m pleased to announce that we have declared a dividend of K0.429 per share, a 47% increase from the K0.292 per share we declared in 2022,” she said.
This translates to a dividend declaration of over K154 million to the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) for its 25.8% shareholding in the bank, up from K105 million declared the previous year.
Zanaco CEO Mrs. Mukwandi Chibesakunda said throughout the year, the bank continued to deliver on its strategic intent of becoming the top transactional customer-centric bank by 2025 by maintaining market leadership, continuously improving customer experience and creating efficiencies through innovation.
She said the bank’s balance sheet presented a growth of 25% supported by a 1.4% growth in deposits from its over five million customers. Mrs. Chibesakunda also said the bank maintained market-leading loans and advances at K1.625 billion while keeping non-performing loans low at 3.7% as of December 2023.