Africa-Press – Tanzania. TANZANIA Commercial Bank (TCB) has vowed to use its recently formed Business Forum for Women to promote women’s economic dignity and prosperity by making finance work for them.
The oldest bank in the country says it will accomplish the noble mission by becoming market leader for advancing their financial inclusion.
The ultimate goal of the undertaking, senior officials of the bank explained here on Friday, is to support efforts of the government to empower women economically and boost their effective engagement in productive activities.
Speaking during the second edition of the TCB Business Forum for Women, the officials said the endeavour revolves around catapulting women banking to unprecedented new heights.
The strategy to make that possible, they explained, mostly involves enlightenment on available economic empowerment and entrepreneurship opportunities at the bank.
It will also involve use of existing and new innovative financial solutions. The strategy will be backed by TCB’s financial muscle and its unrivalled market outreach.
The inaugural of TCB Business Forum for Women was held early this month in Dodoma. Yesterday’s event whose opening was graced by Deputy Speaker Dr Tulia Ackson attracted 250 participants.
Similar roundtables will be organised in Zanzibar, Morogoro, Arusha, Mwanza and Dar es Salaam. The forums accord participants a platform to see, hear and learn from successful businesswomen and get to know TCB and its services better.
Commenting on the forums themed: “The Role of Women in the Development of the National Economy,” DrTulia said that the focus of their deliberations was timely and augurs well with the government’s efforts to leave no woman behind in creating a prosperous Tanzania.
“With this initiative, TCB is going to play a significant transformative role in changing the financial and economic status of women. I congratulate you for coming up with this idea and call upon Mbeya women to seize this rare opportunity,” the Mbeya Urban lawmaker noted.
However, she cautioned the bank against lending without doing due diligence of the projects to be financed and enlightening borrowers on the best ways to invest the borrowed funds.
The TCB’s Chief Executive Officer Sabasaba Moshingi told the forum’s participants that, “We have an extensive branch network of 82 outlets comprising 46 main units and 36 mini branches across Tanzania. Here in Mbeya City, we have three branches but we plan to have more so that we can serve you better,”
He used performance figures during the 10 years of the bank’s transformation to illustrate its ability to make finance support the women’s economic empowerment agenda.
During the period, the fortunes of the 96-year old lender blossomed tremendously with its balance sheet expanding from 136bn/-to over 1.04tri/- last year. Its revenue topped 155bn/- from the 20bn/-it was in 2010, Mr Moshingi noted.
In terms of profitability, Mr Moshingi said the bank is currently among top profit makers having been ranked sixth in the industry in 2020.
The loan book surged from 65bn/- to over 618bn/- and to date TCB has extended loans worth over 120bn/-to women who account for about 50 per cent of its one million customers.
“When we took over the operations of Tanzania Women’s Bank, we were directed to give women banking special attention and that is being done effectively. I call upon women in Mbeya to come and borrow from TCB which is ever ready to support you on that,” MrMoshingi noted.
