The government has lauded NMB Bank for supporting local governments in serving the country and applauded the top lender for its overall contribution in national building efforts.
Speaking on Tuesday at the 2022 Association of Local Authorities of Tanzania (ALAT) annual congress, Vice President Dr Philip Mpango and leaders of the local authorities lobby said the participation of NMB in national development was strategically vital.
While at the NMB pavilion before opening the three-day convention, Dr Mpango said the bank’s services to the local governments, especially loans, have been meaningful and relevant to their operations.
However, he cautioned the bank to lend the local authorities prudently in order to avoid incidences of bad loans, which he said would end up being a fiscal burden to the government.
“You are doing a commendable job in serving local governments but you should be extra careful when lending them so that you don’t end up accumulating bad loans,” Dr Mpango noted after being briefed on the bank’s support to the authorities by the Head of Government Business Department, Ms Vicky Bishubo.
According to her, NMB is digitally connected with all local government authorities (LGAs) and more than 1,100 public institutions, which they help to collect various revenues.
She said that apart from working closely with LGA, the bank was also a strategic development partner of the government.
“In the spirit of the theme of the ALAT 2022 Congress, we at NMB are ready to work with TAMISEMI (PO-RALG) for efficient collection of revenues,” Ms Bishubo told Dr Mpango.
The meeting’s theme focuses on efficient collection and spending of local authorities’ revenues as the basis of sustainable development for the people.
Addressing the gathering, the Chief Executive Officer of NMB, Ms Ruth Zaipuna, said the bank has the requisite infrastructure to help all levels of government to efficiently collect their revenues.
She said between 2018 and 2021, NMB helped the authorities to make collections worth 9.6tri/-.
Ms Zaipuna said the bank was also a top taxpayer remitting more than 1.2tri/-to national coffers in seven years. During the same period, the lender paid the government dividends worth 121.5bn/-of which 30.7bn/-was paid this year alone.
“We are proud to be a key partner and participant in national development and we pledge to continue supporting national building efforts. We will be always ready to serve not only the government and civil servants but all Tanzanians in general,” Ms Zaipuna noted.
She said that apart from collecting government revenues, NMB is also a strategic partner in other national building endeavours including financing social investments using part of its income, mostly in education and health sectors.
NMB’s lending to public servants is also unrivalled with loans extended to them amounting to over 2.94tri/-.
The other major beneficiaries of its lending have been farmers and breeders and the supportive value chain who are borrowing from the bank at the interest rate of only nine per cent.
Ms Zaipuna said that this key sector in the growth of the national economy has so far received credit worth over 500bn/-. Some 564 local contractors have also received loans amounting to 45bn/-.
The CEO also said that NMB was actively involved in the undertaking of strategic mega projects worth about 1.14tri/-in financing through loans and guarantees. These projects include the SGR railway, Dar es Salaam Rapid Bus Transit, REA, Kinyerezi I and the rehabilitation of the DAWASA water plant, to mention but some.
“We have also been supporting special groups like petty traders, bodaboda riders and food vendors. NMB Bank has designed special service packages to serve these groups and we have already set aside 200bn/-for lending them with friendly loan arrangements,” Ms Zaipuna told the ALAT gathering.
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