HARARE - Pan-African bank, BancABC has opened another retail branch in Botswana as the group seeks to strengthen its position in the southern African region.

The new branch is the second to be opened in Francistown as the bank expands its footprint across Botswana where it already has five other branches.

BancABC commenced retail banking two years ago after a decade of focussing solely on merchant banking.
In addition to Botswana where it has its primary listing, the bank has operations in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique.

Douglas Munatsi, group chief executive said he was upbeat that his bank continues to be the best mortgage lender in Botswana through its 100 percent mortgage facility, the first of its kind in the country.

“Through this product, we are able to finance up to 100 percent of the market value of a property, specifically designed for individuals to enable them to purchase residential properties.

“The number of loans we have to date are 269 at a value of P185 million.

“We have led the market in this initiative, which has now become market standard and this aligns directly with the national vision of empowering individuals to own their own property,” he said during the opening of the branch last week.

Munatsi noted that, BancABC was again 2012 market leaders for being the first to launch the VISA Chip and Pin Debit, Credit and Prepaid Cards such as prepaid Cash and prepaid Travel Cards.

The bank has issued over 9 500 prepaid cards already and over 13 000 VISA debit cards so far in Botswana.

He added that BancABC is also committed to supporting the SME business with appropriate business processes, structures and products and services to motivate SME’s to build sustainable and profitable businesses.

“As proof of our commitment to business growth, we successfully completed over P350 million Rights Issue.

 The Rights Issue represents one of the largest issuances of listed equity instruments on the Botswana Stock Exchange this year and the largest in recent years,” he said.

Munatsi added that the capital raised will be deployed to all the banking subsidiaries for their capitalisation signifying their pledge to the economy of Botswana as well as the Sadc economies they operate in.

BancABC provides a full range of banking services, including retail, corporate and commercial banking, business banking, private banking, and structure finance, investments and asset management. - John Kachembere