Zambia National Commercial Bank Plc has today officially listed over 25 per cent of its shares on the Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) making the end to the privatization process of the country’s biggest commercial bank.

Speaking during the official listing ceremony at LuSE Finance and Economic Planning Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane noted that Initial Public Offer (IPO) and the listing of Zanaco shares has reduced government’s shareholding in the bank.

Dr. Musokotwane added that the reduction of government shares from 51.8 per cent to 25 per cent was done in order to empower Zambian citizens by giving them an opportunity to own shares in the bank.

He said the ZANACO IPO is the largest transaction under the Zambia Privatisation Trust Fund (ZPTF) and the first ever IPO that combined the sale of existing shares and the offer for subscription of new shares which will further raise the bank’s capital.

Dr. Musokotwane said government is pleased with the overwhelming response from both institutional and private investors despite the prevailing global financial crisis which has been described as the worst in over eight decades.

He said the listing of the bank on the country’s stock exchange market is also a testimony of the sound economic policies that government has instituted over the recent years to ensure economic growth and citizen empowerment.

Dr. Musokotwane said it is government’s vision to ensure that citizens participate directly in the growth of the economy adding that government will remain committed to providing an enabling environment for growth.

He further observed that the share listing is also a significant milestone to achieving good corporate governance and sustainable growth.

Dr. Musokotwane said the increased capital for ZANACO through buying of shares by the public in the bank has also proved that the bank has remained sustainable contrary to fears by some stakeholders that the bank would not achieve growth after selling 49 percent of its shares to Dutch owned Rabo Bank.

He said government is happy that after privatization the bank was able to open two more branches namely Senanga and Chirundu and further maintained its workforce without retrenching any.

Dr. Situmbeko has since commended ZANACO and Rabobank management for supporting their employees and other members of the public to own shares in the largest commercial bank in the country.

And ZANACO Managing Director Mark Wiessing said the listing of the bank’s shares has marked the final stage of the privatization process of ZANACO which the Zambian government embarked on nine years ago.

Mr. Wiessing noted that the bank is now owned to the extent of 54.01 percent by Zambian nationals, institutions and a significant number Zambian employee’s in the bank.

He said the privatization can be considered as a benchmark for successful privatization and empowerment of Zambian citizens in line with government’s policies of citizen economic empowerment.

Mr. Wiessing said the bank will continue to strive to exceed stakeholder expectation by  designing, selling and competitively priced  financial solutions for both rural and urban Zambians.

Meanwhile Zambia Privatization Trust Fund (ZPTF) Trustee Charles Maate said the ZANACO share offer was the largest Initial Public Offer (IPO) the fund has ever transacted which was worth over 120 billion kwacha.

He disclosed that the offer had attracted over 20 billion kwacha worth of shares despite the prevailing global financial crisis.

Government last year sold 49 percent shares to Dutch owned Rabobank as part of the privatization process of the bank which has a total of 55 branches across the country.

The listing of 25 percent out of 51 percent of government’s shares on the Lusaka Stock Exchange (LuSE) marks the end of the privatization process of the countries largest commercial bank which also widely services the rural areas.

ZANIS/CM/AM/ENDS

The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions, ZCTU, has advised Government to put in place immediate measures to stabilise the current economy crisis, which was the threatening thousands of jobs in the mining industry.

ZCTU Acting Secretary General, Ian Mkandawire, said government should quickly step in and discuss the current crisis facing the mining industry with a view to stabilise the employment situation in the sector.

Mr Mkandawire told ZANIS in Kitwe today that it was worrying that close to 300 mine workers at Bwana Mkubwa Mine in ndola have lost their jobs while another 26 workers have been sent on forced leave at Chambishi Metals.

He said according to reports received, there were more eminent retrenchments at other mine companies and that this would impact negatively on both the economy at national and household levels.

He said the mining companies should not use the current global financial crisis as excuse to retrench workers because the financial crisis has not affected the economy on a large scale apart from affecting the global Copper prices.

Mr Mkandawire observed that mining companies should not use the global financial crisis to get back at government as a way of expressing their displeasure over the mineral tax regime which government introduced this year.

ZANIS/ENDS/LK/SJK

Some councilors in Mwense District want the Citizens Economic Empowerment Fund, CEEF, to establish access points for its application forms to rural centers which lack financial institutions.

The councilors told ZANIS in Mansa that the shortage of CEEF application forms at designated places like Banks and lack of forms in Districts without banks had raised concerns to would be beneficiaries.

Speaking on behalf of concerned councilors, Chiefs Representative, Joshua Chama, said the unavailability of the forms in such areas led to lack of confidence by would be applicants over accessibility of the funds because it was now perceived that the Fund was only targeting people in urban areas and rural areas with banks.

Mr. Chama, who was accompanied by councilors from Mwense’s Munwa, Lundashi and Mambilima wards said it was expernsive for people in areas not serviced by the banks to travel to such areas to access forms.

“We are disappointed to find that the bank stocking the forms has run out of those catering for amounts ranging from 1million Kwacha to 50 million which cost K20,000 but is only having those for 50million and above which cost K100,000. When you factor these setbacks you realize that more money is spent trying to secure the application forms,” said Mr. Chama.

He appealed to the CEEF to identify access points for its application forms in areas like Mwense, which is not serviced by any bank, to use the Post office, the District Commissioners or Council Secretary’s Offices’ in order to lessen the hurdles people intending to apply would encounter.

And Mr Chama has said the councilors had through the Area Development Committees (ADC) sensitized their communities and various vulnerable interest groups over the CEEF.

He said the people in the various wards were now aware and eager to see some beneficiaries of the Fund coming from their area.

ZANIS/ENDS/DN/SJK

-A Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation, ZESCO, power failure at Kafue Water Plant in Mufulira has created a water crisis affecting 50 per cent of the areas serviced by Mulonga Water and Sewerage Company.

Mulonga Water and Sewerage Company divisional Manager, Chris Chilekwa, told ZANIS that the company has not been able to pump water to the afftected areas in the last 48 hours due to non availability of electric power supply.

Mr Chilekwa said operations at Kafue river water plant were grounded to a halt on Monday evening.

Residents in the affected areas are trekking to former mine township serviced areas to fetch the commodity.

Mr Chilekwa said Mulonga will provide water in drums for the health institutions as a measure to cushion the impact.

The affected areas include Fairview, town centre, Kamuchanga, Chibolya and Eastlea.

Kamuchanga General Hospital and some clinics are among the affected public institutions.

And ZESCO branch manager, Arnold Nguni, said the power utility company suspect that a Zesco cable that feed Mulonga water substation at Kafue water works could have caused the fault at the water plant.

Mr. Nguni, who could not indicate when the situation will normalize, stated that workers have already been dispatched to Kafue to diagnose the fault.

He, however, said heavy rains the district experienced last night has hampered the works at Kafue.

ZANIS/PS/EML/ENDS/SJK