AfricaPress-Tanzania: WOMEN entrepreneurs in the country have been advised to increase their efforts to further improve business ideas as well as increasing the quality of their products in order to convince financial institutions to lend them easily.
Closing of the four-day Tanzania Business Women Trade Fair held in Dar es Salaam, NBC Bank’s Relationship Manager, Consolata Shayo said financial institutions are driven to lend based on the quality of the business idea and not the name or gender of the borrower.
She said that is why NBC bank has been at the forefront ensuring that it continues to sharpen the skills of the entrepreneurs in order to improve their business ideas and products to enable them to do their business professionally and make a profit that will enable them to repay their loans.
“That is why through this kind of platforms we have been training them and emphasize the importance of building their brand names and products than their personal names as financial institutions focus more on their business and not their gender or personal names,” said Consolata.
In addition to sponsoring the exhibition, the bank also organized a several training programs for entrepreneurs including a business clinic involving various institutions and authorities including the Business Registrations and Licensing Agency (BRELA) and the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS)
The bank further used the opportunity to ‘sell’ its products and services especially those related to women and entrepreneurs including NBC Kua Nasi account and Johari account.
“NBC Kua Nasi is a special account for all SMEs including street food vendors, boda bodas and similar others while Johari account is designed specifically for women as it enables them to save a small amount starting with only 10,000 shillings. All of these accounts have no monthly deductions, ” she said.
For her part, the Director of the Tanzania Business Women Association (TABWA) Noreen Mawala, whose institute co-ordinated the exhibition, congratulated NBC Bank and other stakeholders for making the exhibition a success, said her office is currently organizing a trade tour to Oman and Comoros to provide opportunities for the members to advertise their businesses in the two countries.
“After the success of this exhibition which coincided with the celebration of International Women’s Day we are preparing ourselves for a trade tour in Oman and Comoros to open more doors and promote our business abroad,” she said.
