ARUSHA: PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has presented a special award to the NMB Bank in recognition of the financial institution’s outstanding performance and contribution into the government coffers.
The award was presented to the NMB Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Ruth Zaipuna in Arusha, during the working meeting of Board Chairpersons and Executives of the Public Enterprises and Government Agencies.
The NMB Bank paid dividends amounting to 45.5bn/- to the government as the financial institution’s contributions from realised profits in the previous fiscal year.
“I encourage the Office of the Treasury Registrar to ensure that all public institutions and government agencies record good performance enabling them to record profits and reduce dependency on state support,” she said.
The government owns 31.8 shares in the NMB Bank, which is the second biggest financial institution in the country.
Other banks that government owns shares are CRDB, Tanzania Commercial Bank (TCB), National Bank of Commerce (NBC) and Azania Bank.
NMB is one of the financial sector privatisation success stories initiated and executed during the third phase government under late President Benjamin Mkapa.
According to the Head of State, the government has invested over 73tri/- in the public enterprises and other state-run institutions and it was their expectation that the funds should yield massive returns in profits.
On his part, the Treasury Registrar, Nehemia Mchechu pointed out that there are ongoing reforms in the public institutions and that so far there are 28 such organisations that have weaned themselves off from government subsidies and have now started making profits.
“Just as we have come up with this ‘list of fame,’ for top performing institutions, we were also contemplating to compile another list of shame for non-performers in future but with the ongoing reforms we are confident that it won’t come to that,” he said.
More than 600 participants from nearly 250 public enterprises in the country are attending the strategic workshop in Arusha targeting to improve performances of parastatal entities in Tanzania.
Other awarded entities include Twiga Minerals Corporation, State Mining Company (STAMICO), National Insurance Company (NIC), Tanzania Ports Authority and Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA).
In crowning the event, the Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa presented a special award to President Samia Suluhu in recognition of the Head of State contributions in the ongoing reforms for the public sectors.