In fulfilment of its Go Green Initiative, National Bank of Malawi plc, on Saturday the 25^th of January helped make Malawi Greener by planting trees in Blantyre, Zomba, Karonga and Mzuzu.

The Bank plans to plant 37,000 trees in total during the 2019-2020 tree planting season in coordination with its partners – the Roman Catholic Arch Diocese of Blantyre and the Malawi Defence Force.

Speaking at the sidelines of the tree planting ceremony in Zomba, NBM Plc Chief Executive Officer Macfussy Kawawa said the Bank had supplied 10,000 seedlings to be split between Cobbe and Changalume Barracks.

“At the inception of this partnership, we had planned to plant 100,000 trees within 3 years, which we have managed to do. Even more meaningful is the fact that, through the help of our partners, we have managed to achieve an 80 percent survival rate on trees planted with MDF,” explained Kawawa.

He added that as a responsible corporate citizen, the Bank is concerned with the adverse effects of climate degradation and is ardent on helping communities preserve the environment.

MDF Brigadier General Blaise Saenda commended NBM Plc on their commitment to planting and nurturing trees, adding that re-forestation is one of their key areas of focus.

“As MDF, it is our desire to plant more trees because we need forest cover when conducting our training. For this reason, we encourage communities to not only plant trees, but also look after them to ensure optimal survival rate,” Saenda said

In Blantyre, the archdiocese of Blantyre Vicar General, Monsignor Boniface Tamani, commended National Bank for partnering with the Catholic Women.

He said, “National Bank of Malawi Launched the partnership in 2017 with Catholic Women and the Malawi Defence Force and this is the final year. Though out the years, we have planted and conserved trees whose survival rate was 75 percent.

NBM will close off the tree planting season by planting in Lilongwe, Thyolo and Chiradzulu in February, 2020.