AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE government has called upon financial institutions to channel their lending in areas which will enhance import substitution.
The pledge came during Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Investment) Angellah Kairuki’s tour of various banks in Dar es Salaam.
Ms Kairuki said that the move would make country not to depend on foreign goods that could easily be produced locally and save the economy’s foreign reserve.
She said one of the key areas was the pharmaceutical industry.
“There are over 700 different medicines and related accessories. It is a huge area of investment that we, as a country, need to explore. I don’t see why bankers hesitate to finance projects in this area,” she said.
According to Bank of the Tanzania (BoT) Monthly Economic Review report for July, on a monthly basis, import bills for goods decreased slightly to $620.3m in July this year, from $765.2m in the corresponding month last year.
However, the decrease was partly attributed to the disruption of a global supply chain, following the outbreak of Covid-19 and not the local industrial output.
Ms Kairuki also said bankers should focus on lending industrial park investors to investment regardless being owned by public or private sector.
At the weekend, the minister toured NBC Bank, TPB Bank, NMB Bank and TIB Development Bank.
Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) Acting Director of Investment Facilitation Revocatus Rasheli called for more cooperation with banks in investment promotion and facilitation.
Ms Rasheli, representing TIC Executive Director, Dr Maduhu Kazi, said it would also be prudent for the banks to publicise their products in the centre’s publication to promote investment opportunities.
He also invited banks to support TIC in bolstering its payment system at the one-stop facilitation centre where TIC hosted other government institutions in facilitating investors’ needs.
The minister’s tour aimed at evaluating the institutions’ performance in the past five years and it was learnt that the banks had been performing well.
