After months of having the Chief Executive Officer position of Zambia’s first listed tree processing company in interim status, ZAFFICO has announced Kangwa David Bwalya is its choice to lead the company in its maiden year as a listed company on LuSE, according to a statement from the company.
“In compliance with Section 3.59 of the Lusaka Securities Exchange Listing Rules (“LuSE Rules”), ZAFFICO is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Kangwa David Bwalya to its Board of Directors”, read a statement issued by the company’s Board Chairperson, Anne Doma Gray-Kunda on 5th May 2020. “Mr. Bwalya will serve as Managing Director effective 1st May 2020”.
This brings an end to months of speculation as to how a listed company could debut on the stock market with an interim CEO, a role that was held by Manuel Mutale. The Board elected to acquire Kangwa who has “over 24 years of experience and has held several senior leadership positions both locally and internationally”.
Kangwa domestic resume includes manufacturing and mining experience. “Locally, he spent more than 10 years at Metal Fabricators of Zambia (ZAMEFA) PLC where his last appointment was that of Acting Managing Director of the Company and prior to that he worked for Konkola Copper Mines Plc (under Anglo American) and PricewaterhouseCoopers Zambia.
He also comes with international experience that has given him exposure to multinational trade. “Internationally, Mr. Bwalya served as Chief Financial Officer for the Asia Pacific region of General Cable Corporation where he was based in Bangkok, Thailand.
Being a numbers person his exposure to leading finance units signals that the Board desires someone who can deliver on the bottom-line. “His other international assignments include his time at Rio Tinto, serving as Business Development Manager (Copper) based in South Africa, New Forests Tanzania (serving as Head of Finance), and most recently at Emerged Railways Properties (Zimbabwe) where he served as the Executive Head of the Company”.
In terms of academic qualifications, Bwalya holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Essex, UK, and a Bachelor of Accountancy from the Copperbelt University (Zambia). Professionally, he is a Fellow of both the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) of the United Kingdom and the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA).
Following the Anne Doma Gray-Kunda led Board’s decision to award a K0.0683 per share dividend for the 2019 financial year, maintaining profitability amidst an ambitious strategic plan will be hot on the agenda for Bwalya. “The Company embarked on the implementation of various key programmes and activities which formed a strong foundation for the performance recorded in the previous financial years. In the year 2019, the Corporation continued to implement key strategies from the 2014-2018 Strategic Plan as we transitioned to the next planning period covering the years 2020 to 2024”, according to the SENS statement on 16th March 2020 in which they highlighted the strategic focus areas that the newly appointed CEO will now be focused on delivering.