Malawi’s leading home-grown commercial bankers popularly known as the Red Brigade, the Malawi Stock Exchange, NBS Bank plc’s is projected to make a profit of K70 billion in the first half of the year.
NBS Bank’s profit is estimated to hop a staggering 126 percent to K73 billion — an achievement they failed to reach in a full financial year of last year, 2024.
This year’s fiscal attainment comes at a time the Nico Holdings subsidiary bank lingers on its dazzling performance at the stock market where both the share value and market capitalisation more than doubled from K347.59 to K708.52 per share and from K1 trillion to K3 trillion, respectively.
NBS Bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Temwani Simwaka said the bank has not only recorded growth in profitability but also maintained balanced growth across customer acquisition and operational performance despite operating in a challenging economic environment.
“We see significant opportunities in agriculture and agro-processing. We have invested heavily in our core banking system and digital platforms to ensure we are well-positioned to support economic growth and make transactions easier and more affordable for our customers,” said Simwaka.
Simwaka also outlined a strategic vision focused on enhancing customer experience, investing in talent, improving digital platforms for mass-market clients and deepening partnerships for growth and risk-sharing.
“We are embedding environmental, social and governance practices into our operations to ensure sustainable development,” she said.
Financial experts say NBS Bank’s prospects in the first half of the year (H1) as exciting news which will likely continue to make its shares attractive to investors more so considering that NBS shares were relatively selling at lower price than some other listed banks.
NBS Bank, in a trading statement signed by its company secretary, Marsha Ovi Machika, says the company believes there is a reasonable certainty that its profit for the six months starting January to June, this year, will increase by 126.4 percent at maximum.
Reads the trading statement in part: “The company, accordingly, advises that the consolidated profit-after-tax for the period is expected to fall in the range of K70.6 billion and K73.8 billion representing an increase of between 116.6 percent and 126.4 percent compared to the consolidated profit-after-tax of K32.6 billion reported in the previous corresponding period.”
Equity investment analyst at Stockbrokers Malawi Limited, Kondwani Makwakwa said the bank is benefiting from its capacity to effectively utilize its assets and that these prospects will continue to attract investors and positively impact its share price on MSE.
“NBS Bank may be benefiting from higher interest income, supported by the current high-interest rate environment and effective management of its assets and liabilities,” Makwakwa said.
Added Makwakwa: “It was widely anticipated that the bank would perform well given the favourable operating environment. The strong profit outlook has likely attracted investors.
“If this profit trend continues, NBS is on track for a record-breaking full-year performance in 2025.”
“We see significant opportunities in agriculture and agro-processing.”
Temwani Simwaka
NBS CEO
