NBM eyes two more regional acquisitions

National Bank of Malawi (NBM) plc says it is planning on two more acquisitions in Zambia and Mozambique in the next four years to continue its regional penetration drive.

The bank’s board chairperson Jimmy Lipunga said this on Monday in Lilongwe during the Malawi Stock Exchange-listed bank’s stakeholders engagement.

He said the bank’s strategic goal is to be present in four countries by 2027.

However, the bank’s first acquisition outside Malawi, Akiba Commercial Bank of Tanzania, where it owns 60.48 percent stake, has not been satisfactory, making three annual losses in a row since 2021.

But Lipunga is optimistic that the Tanzania subsidiary is on the positive trajectory as the 2023 performance was at near break-even with a reduced loss of K755 million.

“As the statistics show, we started with a much bigger loss and we are now at break-even point so the story is actually good, I wouldn’t be pessimistic,” he said.

This performance is coming from the 2022 loss of K3.2 billion and the 2021 loss of K1.9 billion, according to a presentation at the event.

Lipunga said it is not easy to get into territories such as Mozambique which has conflicts while in some cases, the regulatory terrain for cross-border investments needs improvement.

In his presentation, outgoing NBM plc chief executive officer McFussy Kawawa said the bank is working on establishing a Fintech company to provide the bank with digital services.

“What we desire to have is a Fintech and we believe with the right skills, we should be able to carry out some of the services that we have been relying upon outsiders,” he said. 

Kawawa said the Covid-19 pandemic was a wakeup call because some companies scaled down, affecting the bank’s operations.

In 2023, the bank’s after-tax profit increased by 56 percent to K72 billion, becoming the most profitable bank in Malawi.

In its strategic plan that ends in 2027, the bank eyes profit of at least $100 million (K175 billion) with 12 percent of that coming from other businesses within the country and three percent coming from its regional subsidiaries.