Q&A with Centenary Bank Malawi’s Zandile Shaba: We want to be the best and fastest-growing digital bank  In 2022, Uganda’s Centenary Group, in consortium with the Catholic Archdiocese of Lilongwe commenced negotiations to purchase Malawi-based MyBucks Banking Corporation (MyBucks). On 30th May 2022, the Centenary Group Board approved the proposed acquisition pending shareholder approval and a satisfactory due diligence process. An Extraordinary General Meeting of the Centenary Group shareholders held on 10th October 2022 approved the purchase of MyBucks subject to all the necessary approvals from the Reserve Bank of Malawi.

On 22nd December 2022, the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) approved the conditional offer by Centenary Group in consortium with the Archdiocese of Lilongwe to acquire MyBucks. On 6th March 2023, the RBM granted a full banking license to the Consortium under the new subsidiary, Centenary Bank Limited. The Bank was officially launched on 22nd March 2023. 

To lead the bank, the Group retained Mrs Zandile Shaba, the former Managing Director of MyBucks. Zandile is a veteran banker with a rich experience in Southern Africa. Between 1997 and 2010 she was Managing Director for  BancABC in Mozambique, Zambia and then Zimbabwe, before being tapped by MyBucks Banking Corporation to run its Malawi Bank in March 2017.

CEO East Africa’s Muhereza Kyamutetera, caught up with her in Kampala, for an interview as she attended a Group strategy session, to share some insights about the Centenary Bank Limited in Malawi. 

For starters, with some facts and figures, tell us about Centenary Bank Limited Malawi, what it stands for and maybe a review of market share and the key areas where it wants to play. 

Well, lemme start with what it stands for⏤ our core mission, is to improve people’s lives; making people’s lives better. We operate in an economy where there are a lot of poor people. We realise that to be a socially responsible corporation, we must make a real impact in terms of the products that we give and in terms of how we deal with our customers. No one should be worse off because they’ve dealt with Centenary Bank.  Basically what we stand for. 

Ever since we opened, even before it was acquired by the Centenary Group, our focus has always been developing and supporting the SME sector and finding mutually affordable and efficient ways to serve and finance that sector. We believe, that to cause a significant push in the quality and standards of living for most households; to increase employment in Malawi and indeed most of Africa, the SME sector is what will push that. 

In terms of market share, we’ve got eight banks in Malawi, and we are currently number seven. Our market share⏤ depends on what parameters you look at, in terms of loans, we’re at about 3% and then 4% in terms of deposits and profitability. At one point, we were the fastest-growing bank in Malawi and we now aim to go back to that and grow our market share quite aggressively. With the coming on board of the Centenary Group, we will be able to leverage the Group’s experience, skills, technology and economies of scale to grow faster. By being part of the Group, I think there’s a lot more that we can achieve, moving forward. 

In April 2023, the bank successfully rebranded from MyBucks to Centenary Bank Malawi. How has the market warmed up to the new Centenary brand?

It has been fantastic. It has been a game changer for the bank; just having the Centenary name. But more importantly, what Centenary stands for, its purpose⏤Transforming Lives as well as having the Catholic Church, as part of the brand has really been a game changer for us in Malawi. 

The combination of the Centenary Group and the Church is a unique one. We are uniquely set up for the challenges that Africa faces and I believe that is why the market has received us very warmly. I mean, immediately, even since April, our deposits have doubled and that’s why I’m saying we’re returning to being the fastest-growing bank in Malawi. With the Catholic Archdiocese as our shareholder, that gives us a strategic advantage. We are also doing a lot of learning from what the Group has done in Uganda and fusing that with the local insights we have from the market as well as from the decades of the social-impact mission of the Church and fusing that knowledge and insights to roll out services to the rural poor and the unbanked. The market is reacting very positively.

The Centenary Group is putting a significant emphasis on technology, driven by Centenary Technology Services (Cente-Tech), to accelerate its next phase of growth and I believe that includes Centenary Bank Malawi too. What is your technology agenda and focus like? 

You are right. Right now, we are reviewing our strategy. We want to be the best digital bank in Malawi. We have realised that to be able to dominate in the space that we want to play and be able to do it at scale and affordably, we have to go digital, especially using the mobile phone. Some people have argued that internet connectivity is low in Africa, especially in rural areas, but our strategy includes both smartphones and non-smartphones using the USSD technology. 

Good enough, there are a lot of lessons to pick from Centenary Bank’s successes in Uganda. We have since rolled out what we call self-onboarding, which is a product you can use on our website and mobile phone. With this self-boarding, you can open an account from the comfort of your home, you don’t need to come to the bank, and you get an account within a few seconds within a few minutes and you can immediately start to transact. That is one of the key products that we are rolling out and it is already causing waves in the market.

We have also rolled out a school fees-paying platform that was also ready to go, even before the takeover by the Centenary Group. With Centenary Group on board, we are now rolling the product big time across the country and helping even schools in the rural areas to start paying from our robust network of agents, which too has since doubled. We’re growing very rapidly using technology. And we are just about to introduce the e-wallet that’s coming from Cente-Tech which is also going to be a game changer for us.

Digital-first banking seems to be the norm on the continent. How are the other players  in the market responding?

Yes, you are right. The industry is also making significant strides in digital banking, but I am proud to say that for most of the products, such as QR Codes, the school fees payment platform and the self-onboarding- the ability to open an account from anywhere, we were the first to launch in the market. And the e-Wallet too, we will be the first in the market. We therefore hope to bank on the first-mover advantage to stay ahead. 

Are all these products powered by Cente-Tech, the technology subsidiary of the Centenary Group? How has Cente-Tech supported you? 

Well, the products that we have been able to roll out immediately, were already in the pipeline, but we couldn’t roll them out with our previous shareholder. So the minute the Centenary Group and Cente-Tech came in, they helped us do the last checks, and they helped us with the actual rollout. The e-wallet that is coming in now, which will enable us to do micro-loans, manage SACCOS and a whole lot more, will be fully powered by Cente-Tech.

Looking ahead for the remaining part of 2023, and beyond, what can your stakeholders expect?

I think the stakeholders can expect a lot of growth, driven by technology, but also targeted towards serving the rural areas and banking a lot of the unbanked Malawians. The Malawi banking market is very limited. Out of a population of about 20 million, 3 million are banked. So there’s a whole world of opportunities in affordably bringing more people into the banking fold. We also are looking to roll out a lot of agricultural products because 80% of Malawians are involved in agriculture, so it’s a space that we cannot ignore. We want to really dominate in that space and work with partners to de-risk that industry and really start to play big in impacting people’s lives.