The Meridien Bank Burundi, or MBB, was a bank in
Burundi
Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...
, a subsidiary of
Meridien BIAO, a network of African banks with headquarters in Zambia.
It was launched in 1988 and failed in 1995.
History
Meridien Bank Burundi (MBB) was launched on 1 August 1988, the Burundi subsidiary of Meridien BIAO.
The parent had headquarters in Zambia and subsidiary branches in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Niger, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania and Togo.
MBB was a limited liability company with private and public shareholders, and had capital of when it was founded.
Meridian Bank of Burundi began operations with 48% of shares owned by local private investors, an unexpectedly large percentage.
Public and mixed companies had 27% and the parent had 25%.
After six months the public investments were 41.3% of the total.
By the end of 1988 the bank had assets of , of which were government securities.
Melchior Ndadaye
Melchior Ndadaye (28 March 1953 – 21 October 1993) was a Burundian banker and politician who became the first democratically elected and first Hutu president of Burundi after winning the landmark 1993 Burundian presidential election, 1993 electi ...
, the future President of Burundi, took a correspondence course in banking at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers in Paris between 1987 and 1992.
He directed the
COOPEC (''Coopérative d'Épargne et de Crédit'') in
Gitega
Gitega (), formerly Kitega, is the political capital of Burundi. Located in the centre of the country, in the Burundian central plateau roughly east of Bujumbura, the largest city and former political capital, Gitega is the country's fourth la ...
from 1986 until 1988.
In 1989 he returned to Bujumbura and became head of Meridien Bank's credit service.
He was then put in charge of credit review at Meridien Bank, a post he held when he was elected president in 1993.
In 1994 MBB had a liquidity crisis and its capital was reduced to .
The central bank placed it in receivership on 3 May 1995.
It was liquidated in September 1995.
External auditors discovered serious mismanagement in both MBB and the parent Meridien-BIAO network.
The parent had been financing investments with large intergroup loans, with no clear method of repayment.
MBB collapsed after Meridien-BIAO failed to pay back a large loan.
All the Meridien-BIAO subsidiaries had failed by June 1995.
Meridien Bank was just one of the companies with state ownership that failed due to poor management.
Others were
CADEBU,
COTEBU,
Verundi,
Onapha,
ORABU,
OCIBU and
Air Burundi
Air Burundi was the state-owned national airline of Burundi, although in practice it has not been operational since 2009.
At its peak, the airline operated scheduled regional passenger services to Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda with its main base ...
.
Notes
See also
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List of companies of Burundi
The Republic of Burundi is a landlocked country in the African Great Lakes region of Southeast Africa.
During the colonial period most large companies were owned and run by Europeans, and operated under concessions from the colonial government.
A ...
*
Economy of Burundi
The economy of Burundi is $6.75 billion by gross domestic product as of 2025, being heavily dependent on agriculture, which accounts for 32.9% of gross domestic product as of 2008. Burundi itself is a landlocked country lacking resources, and with ...
References
Sources
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{{refend
Companies of Burundi
1988 establishments in Burundi