BY ERNEST MWALE
The future of banking is generally in how innovative the players in the industry will be; and NBS Bank intends to listen more to the needs of its customers for more successful banking.
That is the assurance by NBS Bank Chief Executive Officer Kwanele Ngwenya in an exclusive interview.
“We are geared to providing life-changing financial solutions to address their needs and those of the nation as a whole. The Bank will only get stronger than before and we would like to take our customers along as we move on to greater heights,” he said.
He was speaking a few weeks after NBS Bank released its trading statement in which it announced a profit of 55 percent in the first half of the year ending June 30, 2021.
The profit is one in the series the Bank has registered in recent years, a remarkable turn-around from years of loss making.
But what has been the secret for these positive results? And what does the future look like?
Ngwenya said NBS Bank has remained steadfast in its transformation journey for the last five years. The strong positive trading results are a product of the Bank’s five-year strategy.
“There has been a continuous focus on accelerating digital transformation to enhance convenience and general customer experience for our customers,” he said.
Under that strategy, the Bank has continued to make serious investment in digital platforms and improved its operational efficiencies in its system, among other interventions.
This has resulted in convenient banking solutions to customers.
“Additionally, in the first half of 2021, the Bank managed to grow its loan book and effectively manage its investments in money market instruments,” he said.
The digital banking investment has ensured that the Bank continues to register positive results even as Covid-19 pandemic devastated economies world over and constrained business locally.
He admitted that Covid-19 crisis set in a challenging business environment since many transactions across the country are heavily reliant on face-to-face engagement.
To NBS Bank, this has had some silver lining too, testing the Bank’s resilience and challenging it to innovate, he indicated.
“It has presented the Bank with opportunities to innovate and introduce products and services that encourage customers to transact digitally.
“Assuredly, the Covid-19 pandemic has tested the Bank’s resilience in many aspects, business continuity being top on the list. We are proud to report that the Bank demonstrated the robustness of its Business Continuity Plans, which is evident in our performance,” he said.
Looking ahead to the an uncertain future presented by Covid-19, he said NBS Bank is confident that the strides it has taken so far on the transformational journey have laid a solid foundation for future growth of the Bank.
“We believe that staying the course of the strategy put in place will navigate the various challenges that may arise from time to time,” Ngwenya said.
NBS Bank is a fully-fledged commercial bank which provides a wide range of financial services to individuals, small and medium businesses, large corporations and public institutions.
