Women In Business: Dolika Banda becomes first female Board Chairperson of Zambia’s ZCCM-IH conglomerate
ZCCM Investments Holdings PLC (ZCCM-IH), has appointed Dolika Banda as the Company’s new Board Chairperson. She becomes the first female to hold the post in the mining conglomerate’s history.
A globally respected investment and financial expert, Dolika comes to the post with an impressive and convincing résumé, as well as an extensive wealth of experience in capital markets development spanning over three decades.
She has worked across the globe, including in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Central Asia and the USA, holding top positions in Citibank, Barclays Bank, the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), the UK’s Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) and the African Union’s African Risk Capacity Insurance Company Ltd (ARC Ltd).
With a focus on banking and finance, her international banking and financial management experience, combines operational investments as well as policy advice.
“I do not underestimate the challenges that lie ahead – yet therein lies the opportunity. Working together for a common goal, as I know we will do, I see a ZCCM-IH that will fly high, just as the eagle on our flag soars against all odds,” she says of her trailblazing appointment.
In a statement announcing her position and that of three other Board Directors Gregory C. Kabwe, Moses S. Nyirenda, and Bishop John H. Mambo, she stressed that the success of ZCCM-IH Group will be reflected in its relevance, healthy relationships with its strategic partners and ultimately, in its global market price, stating that her aspiration is “to see a Group that claims and earns its rightful status as the engine and driver of a new, transformational, solutions-driven and inclusive economy – underpinned by awareness of the global issues of today and good governance”.
ZCCM-IH is a mining and operations investment holding company in which the Zambian government holds 17.25% direct shares through the Ministry of Finance and its 60.28% shares are held through the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in Zambia, with the remaining 22.47% held by institutional and private individual shareholders. ZCCM-IH is listed on the Lusaka Securities Exchange (primary listing), the London Stock Exchange (secondary listing) and the Paris Euronext Access (secondary listing). The Company currently has an investment portfolio of 23 companies with key strategic interests in the mining and energy sectors in Zambia.
But ZCCM-IH has in the past had its fair share of challenges in the past. Dolika is however pragmatically hopeful that the current environment in the country, will help spur the Company to growth: “There is now a wave of a positive confluence of key influencing factors such as political goodwill, coupled with international confidence, shareholder optimism and patience, and positive demographic dynamic, “she states.
Dolika is also the founder of a scholarship program providing full financial support for Zambian students to pursue an undergraduate degree in the STEMs, which she runs in partnership with the African Leadership University (ALU). She is an on-demand international speaker, including TED, and has won awards including Zambian Woman of the Year Award 2018 and the Africa Femmes Performantes (Africa’s Performing Women) Dream Catcher’s Award 2012. Dolika currently sits as a non-executive director on the Boards of CDC Group, the UK’s Commonwealth Development Company and Harith General Partners, South Africa, fund manager of a US$1 billion pan-African platform for infrastructure development across the African Continent.
From 2016 until December 2019, Dolika served as CEO of the African Capacity Insurance Company (ARC Ltd). An affiliate under the African Union’s ARC Agency. The ARC Ltd provides parametric insurance to African Governments to help them proactively manage and finance risks triggered by severe weather events and their impacts on vulnerable communities.
Between 2013 and 2016, Dolika was an independent consultant with a portfolio of non-executive director positions and providing consultancy services to companies interested in investing long-term capital in subSaharan Africa, largely leveraging her experience in development finance. She has served as Regional Director for Africa and interim Africa Funds Director for UK’s CDC. She also previously served as a non-executive director on the boards of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the UK’s DFID Financial Sector Deepening, and as Group Chair of FOCUS Investment Group, an SME financial services provider in Zambia.
Prior to 2013, Dolika held Senior Advisor and Director positions at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a subsidiary of the World Bank Group. Her purview included responsibility for all financial markets activities across sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, including a portfolio of over US$5bn, and some 250 projects. She worked with the IFC for 16 years from 1996 to 2012, mainly based in Washington DC, building a career working across different disciplines including risk management, treasury and financial markets.
Dolika began her career with Citibank and then Barclays in Zambia. She spent five years with Citibank where she held senior positions in credit risk management, treasury and financial control. At Barclays, she was heavily involved in the transition of the economy from government-held to private sector driven. She led Barclays’ participation and contribution to Zambia’s privatization process and is a signatory to the founding documents of Zambia’s first stock exchange, LUSE. Dolika holds a Higher National Diploma in Banking from Anglia University, Cambridge and a Masters in Business Administration from Schiller University, Paris.
Feature Photo via (African Leadership University)
