Malawi Banker talks to NBS Bank about their new branch along the busy Haile Selassie

The establishment of NBS Bank branch in the NICO Building along the Haile Selassie road comes in as part of the bank's growth strategy propelled by the need to have a better and conducive operating space for the benefit of both customers and staff.

Haile Selassie Branch is not a new branch per se. NBS Bank decided to relocate the business of its Business Centre which has over the years been carried out in the NBS Bank Blantyre Branch building. The entrance to the Business Centre was behind the main branch, not visible to many and as a result not many people were aware of the specialised services that the bank was offering. Again the premises were not spacious enough to accommodate growth. It was mid 2005, when the management of NBS Bank noted the increasing congestion in its Blantyre Branch that the idea to acquire more spa­cious premises was nurtured. Preparations started taking place at the new site in October 2005. The building was occupied for operations on 22 January 2007. "This branch has so many competitive advantages including large banking hall, availability of ATMs, forex business and many more commercial bank services in addition to being the only bank along the Haile Selassie road" said Mr Gilford Kadzakumanja, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of NBS Bank.

Asked how NBS envisages the future vis-a-vis its growth plan, the Deputy Chief Executive pointed out that in the immediate future they intend to consolidate their operations. "We are now two years and eight months operating as a fully fledged commercial bank. During this time, we have grown substantially as evidenced by the planting of agencies in many parts of the country including Chitipa, Rumphi, Mzimba and Nkhata Bay. However, we cannot just keep on running without looking back to take stock of what we are doing. That is why this time around we want to focus on consolidation of our operations."

Mrs Esther Matekenya, Branch Manageress for NBS Haile Selassie Branch adds on to say that having a branch along Haile Selassie road is necessitated by the need to reach out to people. "We want to take our bank as nearer to the people as possible, particularly the un-banked. Let them see us. NBS Haile Selassie Branch is the only branch along the Haile Selassie street but right in the middle of a busy shopping area to give our customers the convenience of not travelling a long distance to access banking services. Coupled with this initiative are the banks efforts to keep apace with technological advance­ments. We have the ATMs with us at every branch in the country."

The two officials also point out that there are renovations taking place at Blantyre Branch to improve on the ambience, space and general operating environment of the branch.