Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa has asked financial institutions to direct part of their gains towards supplementing the government’s efforts to improve health and education sectors, citing NMB Bank as a good example to emulate.
The Premier made the remarks in Dar es Salaam over the weekend during the NMB Marathon dubbed ‘Mwendo wa Upepo’ where 400m/- was raised to support treatment of women suffering from fistula.
The initiative, seeking to support fistula treatment, was organised by NMB Bank in collaboration with Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania (CCBRT).
“This is a good example to be emulated by other financial institutions as well as other development stakeholders and the government will continue to support you in these endeavours,” he said.
The prime minister said the fistula is distressing for women and commended the NMB decision to mobilise funds through the marathon to support its treatment, saying the move was worth being emulated by other stakeholders.
He said the NMB Bank has shown a high level of creativity to bring back part of their gains to the community while supporting the government in pushing up development of the people.
The NMB Bank said it has reversed its plan to raise 1bn/- in a four-year period to support the initiative; instead the same amount will be mobilised in one year due to high motivation shown by participants and contributors of the programme.
According to the statistics from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), 10,000 women are suffering from fistula in Tanzania where 3,000 new cases are reported every year with only 1,300 being treated.
Speaking earlier, the NMB board chairman Edwin Mhede said this year’s marathon has sparked high motivation among participants and contributors of the initiative. He told the premier that the bank has reversed its earlier plan to raise 250m/- every year to 1bn/- that will help to a great extent in the treatment of the fistula problem.
“Earlier we planned to raise 250m/- but we exceeded the target by collecting 400m/- and from this, we found that it is possible to raise 1bn/- in one year period,” he said.
He said the huge number of participants in the marathon who also contributed to thserving its customers. On her part, the NMB Bank Chief Executive Officer, Ruth Zaipuna said the decision to execute the programme came after seeing how women suffering from fistula with high treatment costs for which most of them cannot meet.
“The high treatment costs for fistula is making most of the women suffering from fistula remain untreated. We are told that the cost of treating one woman suffering from fistula is about 4m/-, which is very high for ordinary citizens,” she said.
It is in this backdrop that NMB bank decided to collaborate with CCBRT to mobilise funds for supporting the government in addressing the fistula problem among women. She said with 400m/-, more than 100 patients suffering from fistula will get treated at the CCBRT.
The Minister for Health, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Dorothy Gwajima commended NMB bank for coming up with this initiative that will give again the lost confidence to most women suffering from fistula.
She said in May this year the government launched a campaign aimed at making sure women suffering from fistula get the right to treatment and become healthy again.
