The Bank of Zambia Governor, Caleb Fundanga has been rightly fired by the new Zambian President Michael Sata for his involvement in the irregular sale of Finance Bank Zambia Limited to FirstRand National Bank (FNB) of South Africa. The sale of the Bank lacked transparency and the circumstances of the sale unjustified. There is urgent need to investigate the former Bank Governor to get better understanding of rushed decision to allow FNB to acquire the Bank. how muck influence the ex-President RB had in the sell may emerge from such an investigation if it were to be instituted and it must be.
Zambia has hitherto been considered as place where foreign investors can go and buy going operating businesses for peanuts. Stupid "mistakes" were made by the MMD Government when they privatized a virtually all the Zambian industries that the UNIP Government of Kenneth Kaunda developed. It was clear that FNB followed the same dictum in buying Finance bank on the understanding that the Bank of Zambia lacked people with the capacity to competitively price a well rooted Bank like Finance Bank. How could Finance Bank, with 39 branches throughout Zambia, be sold for a paltry sum of US$5.4m? As a matter of fact, FNB failed to acquire a Nigerian Bank because Nigerians could not be hoodwinked to let go of their bank in exchange for peanuts. Faizal Moolla, a banking analyst at Avior Research had even the audacity to state that "This is the risk of doing business in Africa if certain political parties are not happy there is a chance they can reverse (a deal)". This assertion is not true. What is true is that the so called foreign investors have been using fraudulent means to acquire Zambian businesses through corrupt means. Moolla agrees that although FNB could still organically expand in Zambia, such an expansion would be costly. His sentiment means that FNB was merely desirous of expanding in the Zambian Banking Sector with little or no expenditure. may have been a shrewd approach that backfired miserably. We commend the Zambian President Michael C. Sata for tacking this bold and momentous decision of reversing the purchase that, going forward, should serve as a lesson to all future prospective foreign investors going to seek fraudulent investment opportunities at the expense of the Zambian people.
What has been happening in the past was that fraudulent acquisitions had blessings of corrupt MMD presidents that protected bad deals because they may have been corrupted. The long awaited CHANGE of government has come and at the helm of the new Government is a man of his words, a man who appreciates the value of Zambian resources and infrastructure and who believes every investment must be mutually beneficial. It is not surprising that some foreign investors are crying foul because they are being stopped in their tracks. The RB administration and that of late FJT Chiluba have been the most corrupt in the history of Zambia.
Zambia has hitherto been considered as place where foreign investors can go and buy going operating businesses for peanuts. Stupid "mistakes" were made by the MMD Government when they privatized a virtually all the Zambian industries that the UNIP Government of Kenneth Kaunda developed. It was clear that FNB followed the same dictum in buying Finance bank on the understanding that the Bank of Zambia lacked people with the capacity to competitively price a well rooted Bank like Finance Bank. How could Finance Bank, with 39 branches throughout Zambia, be sold for a paltry sum of US$5.4m? As a matter of fact, FNB failed to acquire a Nigerian Bank because Nigerians could not be hoodwinked to let go of their bank in exchange for peanuts. Faizal Moolla, a banking analyst at Avior Research had even the audacity to state that "This is the risk of doing business in Africa if certain political parties are not happy there is a chance they can reverse (a deal)". This assertion is not true. What is true is that the so called foreign investors have been using fraudulent means to acquire Zambian businesses through corrupt means. Moolla agrees that although FNB could still organically expand in Zambia, such an expansion would be costly. His sentiment means that FNB was merely desirous of expanding in the Zambian Banking Sector with little or no expenditure. may have been a shrewd approach that backfired miserably. We commend the Zambian President Michael C. Sata for tacking this bold and momentous decision of reversing the purchase that, going forward, should serve as a lesson to all future prospective foreign investors going to seek fraudulent investment opportunities at the expense of the Zambian people.
What has been happening in the past was that fraudulent acquisitions had blessings of corrupt MMD presidents that protected bad deals because they may have been corrupted. The long awaited CHANGE of government has come and at the helm of the new Government is a man of his words, a man who appreciates the value of Zambian resources and infrastructure and who believes every investment must be mutually beneficial. It is not surprising that some foreign investors are crying foul because they are being stopped in their tracks. The RB administration and that of late FJT Chiluba have been the most corrupt in the history of Zambia.
