By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –
THE Bankers Association of Zambia (BAZ) has expressed hope that there will be no major shift in the operations of Barclays Africa once Barclays Bank Plc pulls out its major shareholding from the bank.
On February 29, 2016, Barclays Bank Plc announced its intention to reduce its shareholding from Barclays Africa Group Limited (BAGL) after nearly a century of presence on the continent.
The process of ownership change is expected to take about two years to be completed following Barclays Bank Plc’s intentions to pull out from the Group.
BAGL a subsidiary of Barclays United Kingdom (UK) has operations in 12 African countries including Zambia.
BAZ chief executive officer, Leonard Mwanza said his association was confident that there would be no major shifts in the operations of the banking institution and that Barclays’ strategy in Africa would remain unchanged.
He said this in an interview in Lusaka at the weekend.
“We are happy that the banking institution has given assurances regarding the operations of BAGL and so we do not expect any major shifts.
The assurance by the group gives us confidence that there will be no changes taking place once Barclays UK pulls out of the Group,” Mr Mwanza said.
Barclays Bank Zambia managing director, Saviour Chibiya assured customers that the announcement will not have a negative impact because Barclays Africa was a strong, well-capitalised and independently-funded business, with total assets of over US$66 billion.