The Bank’s Manager for its capital City Branch Edwin Mwitumba said the move is also aimed at fitting the trends on the market.

“We have also adjusted our rates, we have reduced them so that customers; our customers should benefit and enjoy the reduction of base lending rates so that when they are repaying their loans to the bank at least they will pay reasonable amounts” Mwitumba disclosed.

The reduction in the LRR, which is the portion of deposits that commercial banks keep at the central bank as reserves without interest, from 15.5 to 7.5 % by Reserve Bank of Malawi, has enabled banks to lower the spread between prime lending rate and the policy rate which was however maintained at 25 percent.

The Branch Manager described the response from the customers towards their services as good as many people have opened accounts with them.

Mwitumba further explained that the Bank will focus on Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)’s, and business development for the month of August aimed at drilling customers on entrepreneurship skills so that they know how to access capital.

“We are going towards that direction as you know that Malawi economy is driven by SME’s. A lot of people in that business; so we would like to give a platform to them so that they should enjoy the services which the bank is offering to them” Mwitumba said.

New Finance Bank started its operations in the country on 27 January this year.

It has extended its Nyadani ndi Mkango Deposit Promotion for a month to meet customer’s needs.