Bonongwe branded ‘selfish’ for backing Malawi Saving Bank sale

Malawi Savings Bank (MSB) employees have attacked the state-owned bank Chief Executive Officer, Ian Bonongwe as selfish and incompetent for campaigning to sell the institution.

In an anonymous letter addressed to Bonongwe and copied to members of staff, Reserve Bank of Malawi Governor, Secretary to the Treasury, MSB Board Chair, Chairperson of the Finance and Budget Committee of Parliament and Chairman of PPPC, the employees say they have observed with apprehension that the insistence by Bonongwe to sell the bank is not in the interest of employees.

They argue that the sell is intended to benefit “your insatiable greed Mr. Charles Ian Bonongwe Sir and the rest of your cronies namely Charles Chuka and Thomson Mpinganjira.”

The staff accuses Bonongwe of holding serious meetings with his associates and further say he is personally advancing his interests.

Staff have also complained that ever since Bonongwe took over the CEO seat the Bank has continuously underperformed such that the Bank could no longer declare dividends to the shareholder.

According to the Reserve Bank of Malawi, the MSB is weighed down by bad loans and it requires a $48.3 million (MWK 23.7 billion) in capital and liquidity by June to satisfy Basel II financial and regulatory requirements or risk being struck off by the central bank.

The Public Private Partnerships Commission (PPPC) requested strategic investors to buy a controlling stake in MSB in which the government owns 100 percent of its shares.

But the government’s divestiture agency did not disclose the sizes of the stakes that are up for sale or how much it was selling them for.

Bonongwe supports the sale of the bank, saying it would allow the bank to attract new capital and grow for the benefit of the Malawian economy.

“The growth of MSB has been constrained by the lack of capital which has slowed down our pace of modernizing and automating our systems,” said Bonongwe as quoted in the Daily Times.

According to Bonongwe, MSB’s profitability has proceeded at a slower pace over the years making it unable “to grow in a manner it should”.

Bonongwe stressed “there are more advantages than disadvantages” in selling the MSB.

Lawmakers blocked the sale in parliament recently referred the matter to the Budget and Finance Committee of Parliament for further scrutiny.

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