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MBCA Bank managing director Dr Charity Jinya (pictured) has taken over as new president of the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe. Dr Jinya took over from Agribank managing director Sam Malaba yesterday whom she has deputised over the past two years. She will be deputised by FBC Bank managing director Webster Rusere who will in turn automatically become the president in two years.The post of president is held for two years after which the incumbent’s deputy takes charge of the reins to steer the banks lobby group.
Dr Jinya makes history as only the second woman to hold the post of president of BAZ after former Stanbic MD Pindie Nyandoro.
Banking sector sources said Dr Jinya’s new post was confirmed after a meeting of the bankers held in Harare in the afternoon yesterday.
“Dr Jinya is the new president of the bankers association. She has just been endorsed at a meeting this afternoon,” the source said.
She was appointed as the first female managing director of the Merchant Bank of Central Africa Bank Limited (MBCA) (established in 1956, a subsidiary of Ned Bank Group of South Africa) in 2010.
The MBCA boss has also served on various boards of numerous institutions and or organisations and has been one of the numerous outstanding females in the corporate world in Zimbabwe.
In 2012 she was one of the selected top 20 business personalities in the country by Megafest. She was at one time the chairman of the Institute Bankers of Zimbabwe. In 2014, she became the first vice president of the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe (BAZ).
Dr Jinya’s immediate focus includes rebuilding warped confidence in a sector destabilised by a decade of economic instability and to implement fully the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe-led financial inclusion strategy.
While confidence has slowly been picking up since the switch to multi-currency, she has her work cut out to ensure complete trust in banks.
Many people have, in the past, lost money after it was trapped in failed banks or ravaged by hyperinflation while they battled to withdraw it. She will also be at the centre of calls for banks to charge lower interest rates and commissions for their service, which are steep.
Banks have also been battling the malignant cancer of non-performing loans and it will be within her purview to help stem the problem.
The central bank has played a huge part to that end, forming a special purpose vehicle to takeover bad loans to enable banks to play their role.
Dr Jinya would also need to roll up her sleeves to ensure expedited conclusion of negotiations to make 99-year leases bankable.
The process has taken longer than expected, with Government eager to make sure resettled farmers can use land to access funding.
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