The National Building Society (NBS) is seeking funding from pension funds to continue servicing its clients amid Zimbabwe's ongoing liquidity crunch, businessdigest can report.
To stabilise the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG), fiscal and monetary authorities have implemented stringent policies, severely constraining banking sector liquidity, as recently highlighted by the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe.
NBS managing director Sifiso Mahlangu told businessdigest on the sidelines of the society’s SME Fund launch in Harare that the lender had a clear plan of navigating the liquidity crisis.
“Liquidity issues are industry-wide as a result of the new statutory reserves requirement. Notwithstanding, we have been able to mobilise funding from other sources, especially pension funds,” he said.
“We have and will continue to have a phenomenal level of uptake of all forms of our mortgage and other loan products.
“Our retail, corporate and institutional banking units have done well in attracting and underwriting all forms of loans.”
Keep Reading
- ‘Rate hike stems inflation storm’
- Corporate world pledges support for women soccer league
- Zanu PF ‘overruns’ NBS housing event
- Residents rap bank over ‘substandard’ houses
He said clients got support from the society through conventional mortgages and rent-to-buy arrangements for formal and informal sector workers, respectively.
The NBS strategy is to provide housing to big cities as well as rural areas countrywide. It also provides retail banking, corporate and investment banking, and digital banking services.
For the first quarter of 2025, NBS has budgeted approximately US$10 million for 12 projects.
“For example, the Glaudina project, we budgeted a figure of about US$800 000, and we have been able to provide the funding.
“We are already at 100% completion (for the two blocks), I think, in terms of the construction. We also have got what we call ‘Matendele’ in Plumtree, and we have actually budgeted US$700 000, and that is going to be for Q1 (first quarter) next year,” Mahlangu said.
“We also have got a project called Nyumara in Mutare, and for Nyumara, we have actually budgeted US$3 million to make sure that we bring the project to a habitable state and it is basically to do with the construction, the implementation, the finalisation of both on-site and off-site infrastructure.
He said NBS had also gone into collaborative arrangements.
“We have partnered with the two construction companies, Mahaba as well as Hawkflight, in coming up with a scheme called Renshmore in Umguza in Bulawayo,” Mahlangu continued.
He said NBS had committed US$5 million to the project, which brought the total budget to nearly US$10 million.
“We have tried to spread them all the way up to December 2025, pure