CBZ Holdings has set its sight on rolling out a US$2 billion universities infrastructure project and is set kick-start a US$7 million housing project in Bulawayo, Group Chief Executive Officer, Never Nyemudzo has said.
Speaking at the analyst briefing where they shared their 2017 half year financial results, Nyemudzo said they have recently succeeded in constructing some housing projects.
‘We are excited to put great progress on our infrastructure projects having recently completed constructing Victoria Falls housing projects; we are proceeding to Bulawayo for 670 medium density stands were we are investing US$7 million dollars.
“We are also running Marondera 2800 high density stands were we expect to invest US$15 million dollars and our university US$2 billion infrastructure projects is progressing well at feasibility stage,” said Nyemudzo.
He added that the group is a strong partner of the SME businesses hence the need to compliment solutions to solidify their market presence in the SME sector.
“Having obtained regulatory approval, we are targeting to launch an innovative CBZ pension fund supported by preservation fund and guaranteed fund these will certainly compliment solutions to solidify our market presence in the SME sector,” he said.
According to Nyemudzo, cost management strategies adopted by the group including improved process efficiencies and review of supplier contracts are yielding positive results with their cost income ratio dropping from 72.2% June last year to 66% June this year.
The group continues to focus on ways to improve speed and convenience of customers and they are excited with positive responses to the introduction of the self service centers this year.
CBZ noted that utilization of self service centers per day stood at 500 customer visits.
The bank has also launched WiFi Hotspots in their branches to enable their customers to access their platforms for free.
“We also launched WiFi Hotspots in 36 of our branches to enable our customers to conveniently access our digital and social media platforms free of charge while we started with six branches, we are going to roll out this to the rest of the CBZ network.
“The drive for more e-platforms has certainly been received positively this has helped the group to significantly support financial inclusion strategy, said Nyemudzo.
Meanwhile the Group Chairman, Noah Matimba said despite generally weak fundamentals, both the industrial and mining indices advanced by 35.6% and 19.3% to close at 195.97 and 69.79 respectively during the first half of 2017 and was mainly driven by hedge funds and the market turnover rose by 28.8 % to US$115.05 million in the first half of 2017 compared to US$89.29 million over the same period in 2016.
