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Business Reporter

CABS, a member of the Old Mutual Group, received US$110 million lines of credit in 2023 from AfreximBank and the Trade and Development Bank for on-lending to key economic sectors of the economy such as agriculture, mining, energy, and manufacturing.

The bank, in its 2023 annual report, said it remained committed to supporting public and private sector investment in Zimbabwe.

“The Society has continued to source offshore lines of credit for on-lending to sub-borrowers in key sectors of the economy such as agriculture, mining, energy, and manufacturing.

“A collective amount of US$110 million was received during the year from Afreximbank and the Trade and Development Bank,” said Mr Mehluli Mpofu, the bank’s managing director.

He said the bank would also continue to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through value chain financing and financial literacy programmes.

During the period under review, CABS also received a grant from the African Development Bank, through the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA), to be applied towards the implementation of a technical assistance programme to develop women-led small, micro, and medium enterprises (SMMEs).

Mr Mpofu said CABS also deployed trade facilities such as transaction guarantees and letters of credit for use by exporting and importing customers in support of smooth cross-border trading.

“We supported the industry and commerce through efficient processing of collections and payments, notably the deployment of additional point-of-sale machines (POS), multi-currency POS terminals, and efficient processing of inward and outward international payments,” he said.

Mr Mpofu said the society’s contributions to financial literacy are evident through Old Mutual’s on-the-money training, which provides essential financial knowledge to existing and potential customers.

However, for the period under review, the bank’s surplus increased by 202 percent to $429,27 billion in inflation-adjusted terms on the back of increased non-funded income bolstered by payment transactions in key economic segments.

Mr Mpofu said the bank’s digitalisation strategy resulted in a positive customer experience by widening transaction channel options.

“We added US$ services to our digital channels in response to the growing use by our customers, and this was positively embraced.” 

He added that performance was also boosted by foreign currency translation gains and property fair value gains on investment property.

The introduction and growth of USD digital lending channels such as EezyCredit and Flexicredit supported CABS lending activities during the year.

The bank’s net interest income grew by 246 percent to $83,39 billion, while net fee and commission income increased by  1 067 percent to $139,18 billion.