A commercial bank working hard to make itself the innovative, customer-focused leader of the financial industry, Zanaco’s leadership team has propelled it into the spotlight over the past years. Mukwandi Chibesakunda, the current CEO and winner of the ‘CEO of the Year’ award in 2021 for the country of Zambia, has been a crucial front-runner in making this a reality, pushing the company and region towards the biggest and best innovations that the future has in store.
Zambia National Commercial Bank – now Zanaco PLC – is one of the leading commercial banks in the region. Serving its clientele with exemplary asset bases, footprints, and customer service, it has been privatized since 2007 after splitting away from the Government of Zambia and resulting in the rapid gain of shareholders, from Rabobank of the Netherlands to the Industrial Development Corporation, and the National Pension Scheme Authority. In essence, it considers itself a universal bank that provides financial services to any professional who needs it, from enterprise level corporations to SMEs, individuals, and more.
Furthermore, it wishes to enhance financial enablement and inclusion in the region, helping businesses to get off the ground and stay on the upward track towards further success. Above all else, its goal is to be the top of its field when it comes to universal financial institutions, providing finance services across all manner of sectors and industries and made possible by a motivated and exemplary team of staff. Each individual who works within it, therefore, takes great pride in their national heritage, diversity, integrity, teamwork, and excellence.
This has all been made possible by the exemplary attitude of the current CEO, Mukwandi Chibesakunda. Mukwandi is an experienced banker and outstanding professional mind, with a demonstratable myriad of skills in her industry that her clients consistently benefit from, able to achieve results in the financial services sector for every person who comes to her for help. Moreover, this excellence inspires similar hard work amongst her staff. Mukwandi believes in leading by example, with strong skills in business planning, analytics, strategic leadership, and more, allowing her to apply her background in education from the University of Zambia and Manchester Business School in order to inform Zanaco’s processes.
As a company, Zanaco has developed each of these principles over its 52 years in operation, enjoying a journey of true transformation. Working hard to make itself the bank of the future for Zambia’s professionals, its profits have been growing steadily as a result of its dedication to change, using teamwork, innovation, courage, customer focus, and accountability as the cornerstones of its operation and living by its mandate of delivering accelerated financial inclusion.
Serving the mass market and specifically managing many middle income and high-net-worth cases, its approach is one dedication to providing services that meet even the most challenging needs. Being native to the country in which it works, it has an in-depth understanding of its financial and social ecosystem, boasting a wide connective and distribution network of peers that it has developed since its inception and a staff who are both professional and tenacious. Crucially, the secrets to its success have always been the people in its corner. With a leadership team that lead from the front and take accountability as well as initiative, Zanaco’s people pulled it through the pandemic by helping it pivot to becoming a digitally focused bank, contributing to the amount of profit it was able to make by the end of 2020. Despite the challenges of the past 18 months, it has been able to continue with its aspirations to reach the top of transactional customer-centric banks by 2025, growing a strong digital footprint by making itself smarter and more efficient as it moves towards a technologically advancing future.
