By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –
ZANACO has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a credit facility worth US$60 million with three foreign development finance institutions.
The institutions namely Development Bank of France, Development Bank of Germany and Development Bank of Netherlands.
The facility would be used to lend out to customers in agriculture, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sectors and other corporate.
The facility is further expected to help boost its customers’ productivity in the various sectors of the economy in which they were participating.
Speaking during the signing ceremony in Lusaka on Wednesday night, ZANACO managing director Bruce Dick said the bank had secured the loan to boost its foreign currency funding.
Mr Dick said this was also a response to the demand from customers who have dollar borrowing requirements.
“As ZANACO, we are proud of the relationships we have cultivated with our customers and that is why even in challenging times such as the ones we are experiencing now, we still want to support our customers to ensure that they contribute to growth of the economy,” Mr Dick said.
He said the bank’s support to the Zambian economy was unwavering as this could evidenced by  the various  tailor made innovative but
affordable  products and services which  it provide to customers.
ZANACO’s strategy to focus on retail, food and agriculture, government and corporate banking has yielded positive results, but does was not limited to growing its customer base from 250,000 in 2007 to over 850,000 customers to date.
And Germany ambassador to Zambia Bernd Finke said time to translate Zambia’s potential into actuality was now.
Mr Finke said Zambia remains far behind its possibilities, hence the need to translate its possibilities into actuality, diversify the economy and speedy up implementation of reforms with strong partners.
“The word the word that I really don’t like to hear is to talk about the country’s potential. It is high time to translate the potential into actuality,” he said.
Mr Finke urged Zanaco to use the facility for its intended purpose.
French ambassador to Zambia Emmanuel Cohet said PROPARCA was partnering with a number of institutions and Zanaco was among important ones.
Mr Cohet said the facility would help fight climate change and poverty.
FMO representative Ewout  ven der Molen  said there was need to invest in various sectors to diversify the economy.