ZB closes 7 branches

Staff Reporter 02-06-2009

ZB Holdings has closed down seven branches effective 1 June. This is in line with the financial giant’s streamlining of activities.

A total of five branches would be closed in Harare with a single each in Bulawayo and Nyanga.

In a statement, ZB holdings said the decision to close the branches followed the streamlining of the brach network for both the bank and the building society.

In Harare, ZB Bank, Kuwana House and ZB Bank Angwa Street would be merged with the First Street Branch which means account holders would be moved to the branch along the First Street Mall. ZB Building Society at Construction House and that located at the up market Angwa City would be merged with the one along First Street. ZB Building Society in Ruwa would also be moved to Finsure House. This trend shows that the branch network in Harare is going to be clustered around the central business district.

It has also been announced that the ZB Building Society at Bulawayo Parkade will merge with the Bulawayo Branch. In Nyanga, the building society at Nyanga Village would merge with the one at Juliasdale.

The move to close some of its branches is not surprising given that the banking sector in the country has been facing a myriad of challenges which only have been lessened but not eliminated by dollarisation.

There is a very low level of saving and there is very little banking activity which has seen some of the players in the financial sector applying to retrench. In other cases there is rotation of duties where workers are send home for a fortnight while some have taken an even more drastic measure of sending them on forced leave.

It is expected that the local banking sector, which ironically was a high performance sector only five years ago against the grain of the general economic performance, would only start picking up when real incomes are earned.

As it stands, most workers are earning below the poverty datum line and would only use banks to receive their money unlike using the banks to save.