Tanzania: NMB Pledges More Investment in Tech to Drive Financial Inclusion

NMB Bank has pledged to continue investing in research to come up with technologically driven banking solutions as part of its commitment to enhancing financial inclusion and bridging the unbanked gap in Tanzania.

The revelation was made by the NMB Bank Chief Executive Officer Ms Ruth Zaipuna during a meeting with Minister for Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups Dr Dorothy Gwajima who paid a courtesy call at the bank’s headquarters in Dar es Salaam yesterday to discuss various issues with the bank.

“Our mission is to simplify banking services to enable Tanzanians to access these services wherever. Presently at the moment, anyone can open a bank account and access loans without necessarily visiting our branches as part of our Teleza Kidigitali campaign,” she said.

Through huge investments in digital innovations and virtual service delivery platforms, NMB Bank is now a key stakeholder of the government in revenue collection.

Ms Zaipuna said the bank at the moment commands a network of over 20,000 banking agents located across the country as part of its commitment to take banking services closer to the people.

“We intend to bring on board more Tanzanians in the formal banking sector. We believe this will help formalise many sectors and increase the scope of tax collection,” Zaipuna said.

She said the bank has come up with tailor-made products for special groups including bodaboda riders and petty traders popularly known as machingas and urged youth across the country to embrace the bank’s opportunities to improve their economic life.

She said NMB services are 100 per cent available at the district level since it is the only financial institution that has a branch in every district.

The Minister for Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups Dr Gwajima during the event commended the bank for coming up with tailor-made banking products for women and special groups.

“We will be implementing the Tanzania Generation Equality programme this year and some of the ingredients for the programme will contribute to the banks’ performance. Since NMB is one of the largest banks in terms of assets in Tanzania, I felt duty bound to visit it and see how we can work closely together,” she said.