Bank of Africa (BoA) Tanzania has said it is committed to support the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector to enhance its contribution to economic development.
The Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Adam Mihayo, made the remarks over the weekend during a workshop aimed at providing detailed financial education to SMEs to equip and help them undertake their activities professionally.
“As a bank, we have been giving priority to SMEs sector by providing various trainings on financial matters to enhance its central role to economic growth,” he said.
BoA has reached over 300 SMEs since started the programme in 2021 and in this year alone, it plans to reach more than 150 SMEs.
Mr Mihayo cited some of the success stories of the SMEs financial literacy programme as of June this year compared to the corresponding period is the growth of loan portfolio by 14 per cent, customers’ deposits by 22 per cent and the bank’s profit by 88 per cent.
The workshop held over the weekend was themed ‘Tukue Pamoja’, where SMEs were equipped with issues related to records keeping, taxation and strategies to enhance the bank services in order to bolster capital investment.
Statistics show that SMEs sector contribute about 30 per cent to the GDP where in every 10 businesses, nine belongs to SMEs.
He said the bank’s non-performing loans fell to 1.5 per cent during the reference period, which is below the industrial rate put by the Central Bank of 5 per cent.
“This is a clear indication that our customers have been honouring better their debt obligations and above all the better implementation of the bank’s lending strategies,” he said.
The bank’s Head of Retail and SME Banking Ms Ninael Mndeme assured SMEs that the lending services will be provided on time but while observing the bank’s regulations.
