CLOSE UP WITH MALAWI BANKER

Since becoming a full commercial bank, NBS Bank has been working on its expansion drive and reaching out to as many customers as possible. The Malawi Banker caught up with the bank's Deputy Chief Executive Officer Gilford Kadzakumanja to get details on this and more:

Give us more details on your branch network expansion programme.

I will just go back a little bit. When we started operating as a commercial bank in July 2004, we had a couple of issues to deal with. First, we realised that we were late entrants into the commercial banking arena in Malawi having been a building society where we were only offering mortgages and savings accounts. So we saw that we needed to introduce more products, reach out to more clients and also widen our branch network in order to serving more customers. Therefore, during our first years of operating as a commercial bank our main focus was first on product development because after developing the products, we had to create an outlet to sell those products and that's when we decided to embark on an expansion programme by physically putting up new Points of Representation steadily branching out far and wide. Our earliest additions were Chitipa, Nkhata Bay and Rumphi. We chose these places because there were no commercial banks operating in those areas. Since then we have expanded further and currently we are now also in Balaka, Salima, Mponela, Ntchisi and Dedza. We will soon start operating in Ntcheu.We are now quite pleased that we are very much on track with our philosophy of taking banking to the people.

So what is the way forward?

The way forward is consolidation. When you go to a new place you have to make sure that your service delivery is acceptable and consistent. We have had to look at efficiency, convenience and affordability to the customer, and we have also had to deal with the whole spectrum of operational risk and security issues. One thing we want to do is to ensure that we bring relevant products and services closer to where people reside so that they do not have to spend lots of resources, i.e. money and time, to access our services.

Convenience comes in by making sure that our operating centres are easily accessible and are manned with high calibre staff, in a fully computerised - real time online - environment. So as you can see it's a lot of things and we also need to streamline our delivery processes and procedures. I am therefore saying yes, we have expanded but the next most logical course of action is to integrate and really make sure that we are able to take in all our customers' requirements and that we are able to provide all those requirements in an efficient and cost-effective manner. So that's where the focus is now. The other issue going forward is the introduction of more products. We are launching Internet Banking and SMS banking soon. We will also create banking space for high net-worth individuals.

We are also seriously looking at financial inclusion that will see us banking as many people as possible at the bottom of the pyramid. So far the concentration has been on banking middle to high income customers. We feel it is high time we begun to include more people in the low income space. We have managed to come up with some products for clients at the lower end. We are the only bank with an elaborate SME unit and this unit started some three years ago. We have brought together some groups that were not able to access banking products and services, trained them and then offered them business loans.

Our training has focussed on what banker/customer relationship entails, business planning, product marketing and basic financial management. We have recorded significant success in this regard. I am sure you recall that we had a Women Entrepreneurs' Training Programme. The programme i I continues to be a great success. We are the only bank focussing on this segment with a clear and multi-faceted strategy.

We know the most products within the commercial banks are almost homogeneous, what makes NBS Bank unique?

I think what makes us unique is our philosophy of service delivery which begins with taking the bank to the people. We can confidently say that we are one of the most widely spread out banks in the country because we feel that the customers must access the bank at the shortest distance possible. Having done that, we also pride ourselves in training our staff adequately so that they are able to deliver our products and services as we intend them to be delivered or at least in such away as to meet the customers' expectation.

I believe that the one most important thing that distinguishes banks is the people they employ. You are right to say that the products tend to be the same but I believe it is the people you employ who, if they are able to serve customers with a smile, are efficient, quick, knowledgeable and skilled, will make the whole difference. Another aspect is that although we offer similar products, we have a robust banking system, Globus (T24 Version R08), which enables us to repackage our products innovatively. We are able to convert and enhance a common product into one with unique features, thanks to the versatility of our system. The quality of service delivery does matter and pretty much depends on your delivery system of which the banking system forms a major part. Apart from the people we employ, this delivery distinguishes us favourably in the market place.

,<< BACK TO NEWSROOM