By JAMES ANYANZWA

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Pan African housing financier Shelter Afrique has sacked its managing director and CEO Andrew Chimphondah in the middle of a restructuring programme aimed at lifting the institution from the financial abyss triggered by years of scandals and mismanagement.

In a statement dated February 21, 2022, the housing financier confirmed having parted ways with the Zimbabwean national whose contract was scheduled to run until 2024 from September 2018.

The exit of Mr Chimphondah from the business follows a board meeting decision that appointed Chief Finance Officer Kingsley Muwowo to take over the position in an acting capacity, pending the recruitment of a substantive managing director.

Shelter Afrique fell into the loss making territory in 2015 following years of mismanagement that led to the ouster of the former managing director James Mugerwa over allegations of financial impropriety and governance issues.

A forensic audit into the operations of the firm by consultancy firm Deloitte revealed that the management manipulated books of accounts, dished loans to unqualified borrowers and restructured overdue loans to appear as performing, effectively suppressing the volume of toxic mortgages.

As a result, the firm froze underwriting new business (issuing new loans) for three years from 2016 to 2019 while concentrating on loan recoveries and trying to return the business to financial stability. This saw the net loan book decline 31 percent to $114.63 million in 2019 from $165.19 million in 2018.

Mr Chimphondah was appointed to steer the institution through a reorganisation and restructuring programme to revert the housing financier to a solid financial footing.

Last year, the institution announced plans for a $500 million Naira Bond and is in the advanced stages of completing the process of floating the Bond on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.