Loita Investment Bank (Malawi) Limited (LIB) is planning to open new branches in Blantrye and Lilongwe to meet rising customer demand former managing director Jerome Bissay said on Tuesday.

Bissay, who left two months ago for an assignment in Rwanda, said in interview during his farewell party in Blantrye that after opening additional branches in Blantrye and Lilongwe, the LIB board would then decide where to expand further to.

“We undertook a strategy to take banking to clients, that's why we opened the Lilongwe branch at Kanengo where most of our clients are base,” he said.

Currently, LIB opened five years ago in Malawi, has two branches - one at its head office in Blantrye and the other in Kanengo in Lilongwe.

Bissay will be succeeded by Jacques de Jagger as managing director whose deputy will be Aubrey Chalera.

De Jagger, who is also Vice president at Loita Capital Partners International - Bank management service division, a pan –African investment Banking group, said in an interview he will take up his appointment in Malawi this September.

In the meantime, Chalera, who was until Tuesday LIB, head of liability marketing, will continue acting as managing director.

In his parting shot to Bissay, South Africa-based Loita Capital Partners International executive director Yousef Bazian hailed Bissay as someone who significantly helped the bank's business to grow.

“In that year (when Bissay came to Malawi), we saw the bank's deposit base close at K1.4 billion from K570 million in the preceding year of 2000, ” he said, adding that loans and advances closed at K700 from K336 over the same period.

Bazian said last year LIB's deposit base closed at K2.3 billion, loans, advances and export finance facilities were at K1.2 billion while the balance sheet closed at K3.5 billion.

He said LIB will continue the strategy of offering new financial products that will enable that development of a vibrant local financial, market to create shareholders value, client satisfactions and a more enabling environment for local companies to operate.

Headquartered in Mauritius, the Loita Group was established in 1992 and comprises the Loita Capital Partners International and Fintech International group of companies.

In Malawi Loita Bank offers “innovative and demand-driven,” full service merchant banking products.