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Business Writer
GetBucks Micro-finance Bank has outlined its key focus areas for 2020 that will include expanding the retail footprint as well as preserve capital.
Managing director, Terrence Mudangwe, told the Annual General Meeting held this week that the bank’s strategy into the future will be anchored on five pillars, namely; expanding the retail footprint, capital preservation, financial inclusion and lending to the agricultural sector and the mass market.
Mudangwe said the bank has generally been dominant in the micro-lending space and will now also focus on an increased banking presence in order to bring convenience to clients.
He said the bank will focus on deliberate financial inclusion strategy targeting the unbanked in a sustainable manner and offer them banking solutions that address their needs.
Impact lending to the agricultural sector and the mass market will also be one of the group’s focus areas in order to “transform lives”.
“Our model and winning formula has always been targeted at the mass market. This will not change and we will use technology to ensure banking is made easy in a cost effective manner in this new banking era. GetBucks is there to provide banking with a difference,” said Mudangwe.
“GetBucks has always prided in being a fintech institution. Our clients should be able to transact anytime and anywhere. In our digitalisation journey, we have recently launched an innovative mobile banking application with unique features such as bank to EcoCash wallets that can transfer direct to any recipient. Most bank to EcoCash wallets only permit a user to transfer to their wallet first.
“There are many more exciting developments that are in the offing and will be rolled out in phases by our innovative development team for the convenience of our banking public,” said Mudangwe.
Another pillar is capital preservation, which Mudangwe said calls for a fine balancing act between value preservation and profitability.
He said the value preservation strategy adopted by the group to acquire investment property in 2018 continued to yield results.
“The value preservation strategy to acquire investment property in 2018 continued to yield results. With a fully functional banking platform, the bank continued to focus on growing its customer base. Management is committed to improve cost efficiencies to increase shareholder value in order to achieve excellent customer experience,” he said.
Mudangwe, however, said the lending aggression will continue albeit with a deliberate bias towards shorter term loans in a bid to preserve value in this hyperinflationary environment.
Bongani Ndlovu