Finally, pride claimants to get paid

THE government has said that in July this year it will start refunding people who the Pride Tanzania-state-owned microfinance owed.

Deputy Minister for Finance and Planning Hamad Chande revealed that here on Friday, when responding to a basic question by Mtwara Urban MP Hassan Mtenga and supplementary questions from other lawmakers.

In her supplementary question Iringa Urban legislator Jesca Msambatavangu (CCM), wanted to know whether the payments will be done to all the Pride Tanzania depositors in the country, because even her voters face similar problem.

Earlier, Mtwara Urban legislator Mr Mtenga in his supplementary question wanted to know when the government will start refunding people deposited money in Pride Tanzania, who have been waiting for quite long to be refunded.

Responding, Mr Chande said that, “when we say that liquidation process has already been done to the company, we mean that we are going to pay not only people in Mtwara, but also all those the company owes beginning July this year,” he said.

He insisted that the company will start paying all people in July this year upon completion of the evaluation process countrywide.

Earlier, while responding to the basic question posed by Mtenga, the deputy minister said that the government had made evaluation of the company status.

He said the evaluation was followed by a detailed forensic audit by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) to identify property and debts of the company.

“Following the evaluation, the government is proceeding with legal procedures to put the company under liquidation and all the debts will be paid by observing laws and liquidation procedures beginning July this year,” Chande said.

Mr Chande assured Mr Mtenga that he was ready to go with him to Mtwara to meet his voters over the matter after conceding the parliamentary meeting.

On her party, Special Seats MP Naghenjwa Kaboyoka (Chadema), in her supplementary question wanted to know the government’s plans to oversee small scale financial institutions, which have been exploiting people through loans.

Responding, Mr Chande said that the government has put in place plans and strategies to address the situation that is why it has formed a law which requires any institution dealing with loans to be registered by the Bank of Tanzania (BoT).

Meanwhile, in the promotion of Rural Initiative and Development Enterprises Limited (PRIDE Tanzania) was a micro finance institution involved in the provision of credit to small and micro entrepreneurs in Tanzania.

It started its operations in January 1994 with its first branch and head office in Arusha.

The operations started first on a two-year pilot phase running from September 1993 to August 1995 involving three branches in Arusha, Tanga and Dar es Salaam.

After the successful completion of the two-year pilot phase a five-year expansion phase was approved.

The second phase had its main goal stated as to expand the programme to a network of 25 branches serving 30,000 clients and attain operational sustainability in its fifth year.

The 2015/2016 Controller and Auditor General (CAG) report queried the ownership of PRIDE Tanzania which was initially a public institution, before its shares were mysteriously and illegally transferred to private ownership.

The company’s operations started to deteriorate in 2016 when a case was filed in court about its ownership in which in November 2018 the court ruled that Pride Tanzania Microfinance is owned by the government.