Finance Director & Regional Head, Strategic Tax Solutions, Absa, Zambia
Venus Hampinda has steered Absa Bank Zambia PLC as Chief Financial Officer since March 2020. Under her leadership, the business has been on a progressive path despite balancing growth with rebranding to Absa post separation from Barclays PLC; and the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with a challenging macro-economic environment, resulting in country credit rating downgrades.
In 2020, impairment provisions grew by more than 200 percent from prior years. However, the bank saw impairments significantly reduce (by 86 percent as at end of September 2021) on account of her prudent credit management which resulted in lower impairment charges and releases with business trending favorably in line with budget. The bank exceeded its operational efficiency targets over a three-year period, driven by renegotiation of key contracts, branch rationalization, a voluntary separation program, migration of key processing services from South Africa to Zambia at lower costs, and reduction in operational costs.
Absa Zambia Earnings under Venus Hampinda as CFO
As of September 2021, the bank’s headline earnings had grown by more than 400 percent to trend favorably to budget. The bank also posted positive performance on key ratios, including Net Interest Revenue to Total Income, Loan Loss Rate, Cost to Income, Jaws Ratio, and Return on Equity. As at half year 2021, in comparison to competition, the bank regained its market position as a top three bank in Zambia in terms of revenue, profitability and balance sheet with market share of 14 percent.
Moreover, the bank maintains a positive control environment with a green rating on quality and timely submissions to both local regulators (Bank of Zambia, Zambia Revenue Authority, and Zambia Securities & Exchange Commission) and regional regulators (South African Reserve Bank). In addition, Venus promotes alternative dispute resolution as a means of reducing legal costs and exposure. She negotiated an out-of-court settlement in relation to one of the bank’s largest legacy legal cases.
Venus is an all-round finance professional who has worked in all “three lines of defense”: risk taking, risk oversight, and risk assurance. She started her career in external audit, worked as a corporate relationship manager looking after government and public institutions, then transitioned to Director Risk and Internal Audit before finally getting into the Finance function. She therefore prides herself in being a “co-pilot to the business,” who fully understands the needs and challenges of a bank. For her achievements that span over 18 years, she has been recognized by the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA) as one of the 27 Female Accountants in Zambia that have excelled in their fields.
Previously, she served at Chief Finance Officer at StandardChartered Zambia, where she was able to work on a business case and obtain approval from the bank’s Group Chief Finance Officer for the financing and construction of a new, state-of-the-art head office building. The StandardChartered building is the only Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) certified building in Zambia. Prior to StandardChartered, Venus served as Director Finance and Corporate Planning at Zambia National Building Society, where she steered the organization out of loss making into profitability.
Outside of the office, Venus says her “superpower” is being a mother to many. For more than five years she has mentored and given motivational speeches to students in local schools and universities, and in conjunction with various community organizations, including Lucy Mlewa Foundation. While at StandardChartered she was executive sponsor for Seeing is Believing, a program that tackled preventative blindness and spearheaded initiatives that led to over 35,000 Zambians benefitting from free eye screening in 2019. In 2020 she served as Breast Cancer Awareness Ambassador for the Zambia Cancer Society, and as a mentor to young female professionals with Women Females Lead (WFL).
Last year she served as a panelist on the ACCA Africa roundtable discussion on climate change that focused on how accountants can contribute to achieve the net-zero target for carbon emissions in Africa.
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