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Enacy Mapakame Property Reporter
Financial services group, NMBZ Holdings Limited, has commenced construction of its head office in Harare’s Borrowdale area.

NMBZ chief executive Benefit Washaya, told shareholders at the group’s annual general meeting last week that funding for the new head office will come from part disposal of the piece of land, which the group purchased over 15 years for construction of the offices.

“We started construction of our own head office in Borrowdale. This is on a piece of land we acquired for this purpose some 15 years ago. A significant cost of the construction will be financed from the proceeds of part disposal of the piece of land,” he said.

This also comes as the banking group spread into Mashonaland Central Province earlier this month.

“We opened the Bindura Service Centre on May 2, 2018 and this will serve the Mashonaland Central region where the bank was not represented,” said Mr Washaya.

The group incurred a 14 percent increase in operating expenses during the four months to April. But this was mainly on the back of information technology (IT) related costs and depreciation associated with the IT systems upgrade.

In February this year, NMBZ completed the upgrade of its core banking system. Coupled with upgrade of other electronic channels, this has resulted in significant improvement in processing capacity of its systems, subsequently enhancing customer service.

In the period to April, NMBZ’s operating income grew 53 percent to $19,2 million.

Net interest income and non interest income for the period increased by 30 percent and 83 percent respectively, compared to same period last year.

The growth was driven by increased transactional revenues due to the increase in the number of accounts and the migration of transactional activity to the digital platforms.