The move comes barely two weeks after NSSA acquired an 84% in the struggling merchant bank, a development that will result in RMB meeting the central bank stipulated minimum capital requirements of US$10 million for merchant banks. RMB had slipped into curatorship last year after an investigation by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) unearthed serious governance deficit and the spiriting away of depositors funds.
James Matiza, NSSA general manager, told Standardbusiness on Friday the team will be headed by industrialist Joseph Kanyekanye and will work with Saruchera on the handover of assets. Saruchera’s extended term of office ends this week after which he is expected to leave the bank.
“They will oversee the handover-takeover process as the curator will be stepping down. They have been given mandate to oversee the process,” Matiza said.Other members of the team are veteran banker, Lawrence Tamayi, Barnabas Matongera and one former board member of RMB.
The quartet will be part of the 10-member board that will drive RMB. Six other board members, including the managing director, will join the board in due course after being deemed fit by RBZ which vets senior managers and board members of all banks.
NSSA snapped up a controlling shareholding in RMB in a US$24 million deal in the process whittling down the shareholding of founder Patterson Timba and his allies to a mere 16%.
As part of a deal agreed two weeks ago, NSSA was given the go ahead to convert into equity its US$8,5 million owed by RMB. NSSA also agreed to assume a US$5,7 million debt owed to Econet by ReNaissance Financial Holdings Limited (RFHL) and RMB. This debt has to be paid in eight months.
Shares held by RFHL, ReNaissance Investment Banking Corporation, ReNaissance Securities Nominees in Afre will be transferred to RMB to offset a US$13,3 million debt owed by RFHL.
Econet also agreed to sell its 19,7% stake in Afre to NSSA. The deal went through via a special bargain last Monday. Until the events at Renaissance, no bank had been placed under curatorship since the then CFX Bank was put under the helm of Fungai Kuipa in 2004.
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The placement of RMB under curatorship came as the central bank said it had no appetite for curatorships. An RBZ investigation into RMB unearthed that corporate governance was alien and that it was engaging in non permissible activities. It also established that the bank was technically insolvent with negative capital of US$16 million.
RBZ then read the riot act banishing founders Patterson Timba, Dunmore Kundishora and some board members from holding any position in the banking sector. Matiza said he, together with Innocent Chagonda and Christopher Hokonya will join the Afre board representing NSSA’s interests.
