One of South Africa’s top four commercial banks FNB has been granted a banking licence by the Bank of Zambia.
”FNB’s Zambia operations, which are set to start in the second quarter of 2009, will add to FNB’s current African footprint which includes Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique,” the bank said in a statement on Tuesday.
FNB said that Zambia was a low political risk country with an investor-friendly environment.
”FNB made the decision to enter Zambia as it has one of the highest GDPs in the region and the economy is growing at a favourable rate,” said Jabu Khethe, CEO of FNB Africa.
He said that one of FNB’s key strategic focus areas was to grow its profitability by further expanding outside South Africa.
”In line with this, FNB’s vision is to be a leading financial services provider in the Southern African Development Community and to establish a presence in East and West Africa.”
FNB Zambia will open branches as well as provide ATMs, electronic and cellphone banking.
Richard Hudson, previously the CEO of FNB Lesotho and temporary CEO of FNB Mozambique, has been appointed as the CEO of FNB Zambia.
Tanzania, Angola, Uganda and Ghana were among FNB’s considerations for further expansion into other African countries, Khethe said. — Sapa