EX-MINISTER DESCRIBES ZANACO PRIVATISATION VALUE AS INAPPROPRIATE

Former transport minister in the Frederick Chiluba regime, Andrew Kashita has argued that ZANACO was improperly valued prior to its 2007 sale to Rabo bank.

Dr Kashita, who is an economist by profession, has further hinted that even the 5.7 million Euros price tag put on ZANACO was very minimal compared to the net value of the financial institution then.

He has told a commission of Inquiry sitting in Lusaka that the valuation of ZANACO assets was done inappropriately since some of its properties were worth at least 14.15 million Euros as at December 2004.

Dr Kashita, who is also one of the minority shareholders in the institution, after privatisation, further said that it would be well to uncover how the 5.7 million Euros paid by Rabo bank was arrived at.

He therefore argued that minority shareholders demand to see the valuation report to understand how the value of shares was determined.

Dr Kashita also accused the then Rupiah Banda government, which adamantly privatised ZANACO, of being secretive about the transaction, which he described as full of irregularities.

President Michael Sata has ordered a probe into the privatisation of the bank, further constituting a commission of inquiry over the matter.

After the respective privatisation 2007, Rabo Financial Institution Development of the Netherlands took over the management and operations of ZANACO after it bought 49 percent of the shares in the bank.

Four percent of the shares were sold to the ZNFU and the Zambian government, under Mr Sata's predecessor Rupiah Banda, offloaded its 25.8 percent of shares on the Lusaka Stock Exchange.