By Staff Writer
HARARE – A HIGH-profile Bard Santner Inc. delegation led by board chairperson Vinod Bussawah, alongside chief executive Senziwani Sikhosana and directors, met with Mauritius President Dharambeer Gokhool at State House in Port Louis on Wednesday to cultivate business networks at the highest levels and explore opportunities in the thriving Indian Ocean island nation.
Apart from Bussawah and Sikhosana, the delegation included other top executives Tatenda Hungwe, Lucia Chingwaru and Ngonidzashe Chikowore.
The strategic meeting focused heavily on exploring cross-border financial services, investment management, and new regional partnerships, reinforcing Mauritius’s leading position as a critical regional gateway for investment into Africa, while consolidating the upcoming Bard Santner’s ambition to become a local and regional financial services powerhouse.
Bard Santner, headquartered in Harare, with offices in Johannesburg, and New York, provides financial intermediary, asset management, corporate finance, wealth management, and treasury management services.
It has some directors, including its chairman, from Mauritius and intends to spread its wings across the economically stable Indian Ocean island nation on Africa’s southeast coast,
which is a regional financial hub.
Recently, Bard Santner facilitated local investors’ access to the historic US$1.6 billion Initial Public Offering (IPO) for the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE.
Located in Lekki, Lagos, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, owned by Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, is the world’s largest single-train oil refinery, with its nameplate capacity re-rated to 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) and a roadmap to reach 1.4 million bpd by 2029.
The primary purpose of the US$1.6 billion “People’s IPO” by Dangote Petroleum Refinery is to fund a major expansion programme that scales the Lagos refinery’s processing capacity from roughly 700 000 barrels per day (bpd) to 1.4 million bpd by 2029.
In November last year, Bard Santner brought Dangote, whose group operates in 16 African countries, to Harare to invest more than US$1 billion in Zimbabwe in an integrated cement manufacturing, limestone and coal mining, and power generation
industrial and infrastructure complex, which may go up to US$2 billion with the envisaged oil pipeline from Namibia to Zimbabwe via Botswana.
Bard Santner also recently got a microfinance bank licence from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to launch a diaspora-focused institution to tap into the multi-billion dollar market driven by the country’s millions of citizens living and working in South Africa, Botswana, United Kingdom, Australia and United States, among other countries.
Last week, Bank Santner Bank unveiled a 13-member board of directors featuring former executives from global institutions like HSBC, KPMG, and PwC.
The Core Strategic Focus of the Mauritius Visit, includes:
🟡Cross-border financial services: Exploring and reviewing frameworks to align capital and asset management strategies across regional boundaries.
🟡Connecting regional markets: Driving the pan-African financial services group’s mission to bridge capital, target markets, and investment portfolios across Africa.
🟡Leveraging growth milestones: Capitalising on the momentum of the RBZ recently granting a deposit-taking license to Bard Santner microfinance bank, which aims to target the massive diaspora remittance corridor.
Confirming the meeting, Gokhool’s social media platforms said:
“President Gokhool welcomed a delegation from the Bard Santner Group, Zimbabwe, for a courtesy visit yesterday (Wednesday).
Led by Chairman Mr Vinod Khooshiramsing Bussawah, the delegation comprised Mr Senziwani Sikhosana, Chief Executive; Mr Tatenda Hungwe, Managing Director; Ms Lucia Chingwaru, Executive Director; and Mr Ngonidzashe Chikowore, Managing Director of Bard Santner Microfinance Bank.
Discussions explored investment management, cross-border financial services and collaboration with Mauritian stakeholders, highlighting Mauritius’ role as a strategic gateway for investment into Africa.
President Gokhool also received Mr Rajah Ramdaursingh, Chief Executive Officer of the Economic Development Board (EDB) Mauritius, at State House this week.
Discussions focused on the EDB’s role in promoting local and foreign investment, facilitating business opportunities and strengthening Mauritius’ position as an attractive investment destination and a gateway to regional and international markets.”
Zimbabwe is trying to emulate Mauritius by building the Victoria Falls International Financial Services Centre similar to the Mauritius International Financial Centre.
By transforming the country’s premier resort town into a special offshore economic zone, Zimbabwe aims to establish a tax-free international gateway for banking, regional and global investments, capital, hard-currency transactions and tourism, just like Mauritius.
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