Africa-Press – Zambia. His rise to billionaire status is due to an increase in his indirect stake in FDH Bank Plc. His investment firm, M Development, holds 55 percent of FDH Financial Holdings, which owns 74.05% of FDH Bank, according to Billionaires.Africa.
This gives Mpinganjira indirect control of more than 2.81 billion shares, which is about 40.73 percent of the company, the outlet noted. Per the latest valuation, that stake is worth MWK 1.94 trillion ($1.12 billion), up from MWK 416.6 billion ($240.5 million) at the start of the year.
This $878.9 million rise in value is linked to the surge in FDH Bank’s stock price on the Malawi Stock Exchange. According to Billionaires. Africa, “the shares have risen 365 percent this year, from MWK 148.23 ($0.085) in January to MWK 689.99 ($0.398), lifting the bank’s market capitalization to MWK 4.76 trillion ($2 billion) and making it the most valuable publicly traded company in the country.”
An accountant turned entrepreneur, Mpinganjira set up the Malawi Stock Exchange in 2000, served as its first CEO, and in 2008 opened his own commercial bank, FDH Bank, headquartered in Blantyre, Malawi’s second-biggest city, according to Accounting and Business magazine.
Before launching his company, Mpinganjira worked at Deloitte and made contacts during his five-year stay with the firm.
He also had a couple of corporate accounting roles and a risk management position at a bank. This would expose him to Malawi’s burgeoning capital market, and he would waste no time in reaping the benefits as an early adopter.
“I was ahead of everybody because I had initially worked for the National Bank of Malawi, the largest bank in the country,” he said, according to Accounting and Business magazine.
He recalled a Deloitte partner telling him of an opening in a new financial institution, and his conversation led him to become Malawi’s first stockbroker with Stockbrokers Malawi, which set up the Malawi Stock Exchange in 2000. He was appointed as the boss, and he subsequently launched FDH Bank.
“I was able to network with a lot of contacts, both in south-east Africa and internationally,” he said. “This experience also introduced me to many business concepts in the financial sector.”
Mpinganjira leveraged the knowledge and experience he had acquired to make plans to set up a financial services business. He opened First Discount House in 2002, and it became a subsidiary of FDH Financial Holdings as part of a group restructuring exercise in 2007, when he also acquired a license for FDH Bank.
As of 2020, FDH Bank boasted a network of 53 branches and 91 automated teller machines strategically positioned across all 27 districts of the country, according to Billionaires.Africa. The bank has grown into one of the leading groups in Malawi’s financial services industry.
As part of its corporate social responsibility, Mpinganjira’s FDH Financial Holdings, with interests in banking, discount house operations, investment management, and advisory services, funded the refurbishment of a children’s intensive care unit at a hospital in southern Malawi. FDH has also helped colleges with computing and communication equipment, and in March 2024, Mpinganjira built a cancer hospital in honor of his late wife.
Thanks to Mpinganjira, Malawi may have also joined the few countries in Africa with at least one billionaire. The Africa Wealth Report 2023 by Henley & Partners found that the “Big 5” wealth markets in Africa, namely South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, and Morocco, together account for 56% of Africa’s high-net-worth individuals and over 90% of the continent’s billionaires.
The list of African billionaires published by Forbes in 2024 saw South Africa emerge with the highest number of billionaires.
Global rankings such as Forbes and the Bloomberg Billionaire Index have yet to name Malawi as the latest country with a dollar billionaire.
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