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Oliver Kazunga Senior Business Reporter
ECONET Wireless Zimbabwe’s banking subsidiary Steward Bank’s assets increased by 31 percent to $181,7 million from $138,7 million as at February 28, 2014 and deposits from customers grew by 63 percent from $62,1 million $100,1 million.

In a financial statement for the period ending August 31, 2014, the bank’s chairman Oluwatomisin Fashina said the bank posted a $3,7 million loss after tax for the six months ending August 31, 2014, recovering from a $22 million loss recorded during the same period last year.

Fashina attributed the loss to extraordinary expenditure incurred in the ongoing business model-re-alignment.

“The bank experienced an operating loss after tax of $3,7 million over the period on the back of extraordinary expenditure incurred in the ongoing business model re-alignment,” he said.

“This expenditure included costs incurred on the retrenchment of employees through a staff rationalisation exercise and the impairment of property and equipment as a result of the closure of marginal bank branches.

“The performance was, however, a recovery from a loss of $22 million incurred by the bank over the prior comparative period.”

Steward Bank’s net interest income improved in comparison to the previous financial period on the back of achievement of better margins on lending products and no-interest income increased in comparison to the prior year comparative period as a result of growth in transactional fee income.

Fashina said the bank had implemented a staff rationalisation exercise with a leaner staff complement and a more robust performance management that captures the whole spectrum of talent management, equitable compensation as well as training.

“The bank anticipates to realise value from the human capital initiatives undertaken in the near future,” he said, adding that an unrelenting desire to provide financial solutions relevant to their clients was at the core of the bank’s activities.

Fashina said his bank implemented a broad card strategy that expanded on the benefits of Zim-Switch and MasterCard membership.

He added: “As part of this imperative, the bank launched the EcoCash MasterCard Debit Card which is targeted at all EcoCash-registered subscribers. I’m pleased to report that the uptake of this card has been phenomenal and has immediately made the bank the largest issuer of Master-Cards Cards in the country.

“To support this card the bank embarked on the deployment of a significant number of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and Point Of Sale (POS) devices.”

As of August 31, Steward Bank’s core capital stood at $51,3 million against the prescribed regulatory level of $25 million.

Under the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe regulations commercial banks are expected to have raised their capital levels to $100 million by December 2020.

Fashina said Steward Bank was moving towards meeting the stipulated capital requirements prior to the set deadline.

On the outlook, he said significant progress had been made in the deployment of POS infrastructure and the introduction of card products place the bank in a unique position for the promotion of a cashless economy required to counter debilitating impact of the prevailing liquidity crunch.

“The bank will also continue to play its part in fostering financial inclusion among the general populace as well as mobilising the much-needed financing for deployment among various sectors in the economy,” he said.