adminThe branch rollout has taken Nyaradzo beyond its traditional bastions — Harare and Bulawayo — to other strategic centres, namely Mutare, Chiredzi, Redcliff, Nyanga and Chinhoyi.
The expansion has also seen the group creating more than 500 new jobs. Nyaradzo group chief executive Mr Phillip Mataranyika said the investment capital had been raised internally.
“We have been avoiding debt financing (in growing the business) because of the exorbitant costs involved except where one has access to offshore funding.
“So far, we have been using internally generated resources to fund our growth. Now that the projects we are embarking on are getting bigger, we may start looking at external sources of funding, including borrowings,” he said.
“The availability of resources will give us latitude to broaden our growth prospects,” he said.
He said part of the US$10 million was currently being used to set up new infrastructure and equipping their countrywide branch network.
Work is currently underway towards the official opening of the group’s new Mhondoro-Ngezi and Rusape branches whose construction has already been completed.
The company has further indicated that after the opening of these two branches, it is looking to have a physical presence in Kariba, Bindura, Chitungwiza, Hwange and Beitbridge.
“The objective is to bring Nyaradzo services closer to the customer’s doorstep,” he said.
The Nyaradzo boss believes that the company’s decision to invest in the smaller towns makes good business sense since it is based on economic rationality as well as the group’s obligations to its customers.
“We always appraise all investment options before we plunge head-on into any one of them including our presence in the so-called small towns. Our investment in Redcliff is as strategic as our investment in Gweru, Bulawayo or Mutare.
“If the economic sense is not as clear as day then the presence of human beings in these so-called small towns is itself reason enough to have Nyaradzo where people are, for we are a people-based organisation.
“We are providers of service to both the living and the dead, therefore our clients must be able to access our services even those in the small towns,” he explained.
Mr Mataranyika said it was unlikely that the company would unbundle its real estate portfolio into a separate strategic business unit.
He also dismissed speculation that Nyaradzo might list on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange anytime soon.
“I wouldn’t want to cross speculative bridges. We only cross real bridges. Currently, we are running our businesses — Nyaradzo Funeral Services, Nyaradzo Funeral
Assurance Company, Calundike Exports and Eureka Insurance Brokers — as a group and should opportunities arise, we would consider them at the right time,” he said.
“Again, I wouldn’t want to worry about things that might happen. I worry only about things when they happen or rather when they appear on our radar. For now, ZSE listing is not one of them.”
Online Reporter