People in rural areas will now have access to FDH bank services through Malawi Posts Corporation (MPC) outlets, a development orchestrated by a partnership between the two firms.

During the launch of the Banki Pakhomo initiative, FDH Bank plc managing director Elias Ngalande outlined that MPC has the reach of people in the said demographic. “The partnership will facilitate financial inclusion where our customers in rural areas will find it easier to access Banki Pakhomo services as Malawi Postal Corporation has 180 branches close to rural areas in the country” said the MD.

On the other hand, MPC acting postmaster general Zacheus Meke said the Banki Pakhomo initiative will reduce the burden of queuing at the bank. The Financial Services Assessment established that the use of formal financial services in Malawi is found to be limited due to at least four reasons; first, although a majority of the Malawian population lives in rural areas, formal financial institutions are mostly located in urban and semi-urban areas, physically distant from the rural households. Second, rural households face obstacles to opening a formal bank account since most formal institutions have account terms, such as relatively large minimum balances, that set formal financial services out of reach of rural populations. Third, many banks also require formal identification cards such as a passport or other government ID that rural populations may not have and may find prohibitively expensive to procure. Finally, these households lack adequate information regarding access to and use of formal financial services