eBusiness Weekly
ZB Financial Holdings is one of the diversified financial services counters on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.
ZB Financial Holdings was established in 1951 as The Netherlands Bank of Rhodesia Limited, a name which was changed to Rhodesia Banking Corporation Limited in 1972 and then to Rhobank in 1979.
It changed its name in 1981 to Zimbabwe Banking Corporation after the Government purchased the majority shareholding.
In 1989, the directors of the company undertook a restructuring exercise to bring all subsidiaries and associates under one investment and hold company, Zimbabwe Financial Holdings Limited.
The restructuring allowed the Bank to concentrate exclusively on providing commercial banking services to the public.
The new holding company was ideally placed to explore other profitable business activities, which were not previously possible because of restrictions placed on the investment activities of the Bank in terms of the Banking Act.
On October 30, 2006, the Group adopted a new monolithic brand and formally changed its name to ZB Financial Holdings Limited.
Dr Shepherd Fungura is the current group chief executive officer of ZB Financial Holdings, he was appointed on 1 August 2021 from Raknok Enterprises where he was CEO since May 2021.
Earlier to that he was the Managing Director of Old Mutual Insurance Company between May 2019 and April 2021.
Before the MD position, Dr Fungura had been the General Manager, Group Chief Risk Officer of Old Mutual Property Limited (Zimbabwe) and Old Mutual Zimbabwe Limited.
Shepherd was first appointed as Actuarial Manager at OMIC a position he held from August 2000 to October 2006 after which he left for South Africa and joined Hannover Re as Portfolio Manager – Sub Sahara Africa from November 2006 to October 2008.
He later became Senior Actuarial manager at the Road Accident fund from November 2008 to February 2013 and reinsurance and pricing actuary at Guardrisk over the period from March 2013 to April 2014 before joining OMIC.
Dr Shepherd is an actuary by profession, a holder of a B Comm (Hons) in Actuarial Science from the National University of Science and Technology.
