NBM pledges to enhance services amid SME concerns

National Bank of Malawi (NBM) Plc has reassured customers of ongoing service improvements.

The assurance follows concerns expressed by business individuals in Mzuzu during the bank’s interaction with Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Issues raised include frequent outages of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), pricing on Point of Sale (POS) devices and lengthy approval time for business loans.

Speaking on behalf of business individuals, Cedric Sapuwa, the managing director of Premiere Beverages said that while the bank is already doing a lot in facilitating customer financial solutions, there is a need to address these issues.

“There are areas where they are still weak and need to be enhanced like the e-Business Sector. People in the meeting have spoken about the outages of cash in the ATMs and network outages, so these are the areas they can do better,” Sapuwa said.

He added: “They were also talking about the POS acceptance by most merchants in towns and most service providers. They shun them because of the pricing issue, they run away from the commission that National Bank collects from them.”

Responding to the concerns, NBM chief executive officer Macfussy Kawawa said they will look into them as they value customer feedback, which has always enabled them to improve customer experience.

“We always take the feedback from our customers seriously. We are the biggest bank and proud of that and we have grown this far because of listening to the feedback from our customers. It is that feedback that has made us improve to the level that we pride ourselves on being the best bank in the country,” Kawawa said.

Kawawa outlined some measures the bank has been taking to address some of the issues raised, which he said are already bearing fruits.

“On ATMs, sometimes they are out because of network problems from our provider. But, we know they have backup arrangements that they restore within a short time. All we try to do is to keep in contact with them so that the down periods are minimized,” Kawawa said.

He added; “There are also times when power outages do get our ATMs offline. Again, we have taken measures to put solar systems in most of our remote ATMs. Then, there are other cases to do with cash running out. All we have been trying to do is to make sure that we have a proper system of replenishing ATMs at regular intervals rather than waiting until cash runs out.”

Regarding lengthy approval periods for loans, Kawawa said they invested in a system that will not require people to go to the service center. He said using digital platforms, customers will be able to apply for loans and get approvals in the shortest possible time.