Andrew Sardanis

Andrew died on 28 February 2021, at CFB Hospital in Lusaka. He was 89.

In 1984 he formed Meridien BIAO as the result of a 1991 merger between the Meridien group's banks started by Mr Andrew Sardanis, a Cypriot born Zambian, and a network of 11 banks he bought from the French liquidator of Banque Internationale pour L'Afrique Occidental (BIAO). Registered in Luxembourg, although it never operated there, Meridien BIAO was 74% owned by Meridien International Bank Ltd (MIBL), which had a banking licence in the Bahamas. The African Development Bank held a 10% stake and the Banque Ouest Africaine de Developpement (BOAD) had a 16% holding. It was capitalised at about $100m. The group reported a net profit of $3.26m in 1993, the last year for which audited figures are available, but after currency translations its reserves declined by $15.2m in that year. MIBL is owned by Meridien Corporation, which is in turn owned by ITM International, a Luxembourg-registered private company controlled by the Sardanis family trust.

Andrew was born in colonial Cyprus and migrated to Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in October 1950, when he was 19, as part of a group of migrants displaced by the end of World War II. He spent most of his early life working for his brother in law in a transport company which operated between the Copperbelt and North-Western Province. In his mid-twenties he owned and operated North-Western Trading and by 1957 he had started Mwaiseni stores. He was one of the few white settlers to have actively supported the black liberation movement and he trained and advanced Zambians in his own business, treating them as partners and fellow shareholders and also provided a group of shops that allowed Zambians to transact normally. As a firm anti-colonialist he joined UNIP and in the 1962 elections, he stood as UNIP candidate for Kabompo. He became a passionate freedom fighter and was strongly involved in the independence movement.

Andrew Sotiris Sardanis (Greek: Ανδρέας Σωτήρης Σαρδάνης; 13 March 1931 – 28 February 2021) was a Cypriot-Zambian journalist and businessman best known for his involvement in Zambia's independence liberation movement and major role in the formation of Zambia's first administration and implementing economic policies of Zambia from 1965 to 1970. He served as permanent secretary in the Ministry of State Participation and chairman of Industrial Development Corporation. He was a recipient of Zambia's highest civil decoration the order of the Eagle of Zambia which was awarded to him by president Edgar Lungu in 2019.