NATIONAL MICROFINANCE BANK LAUNCHES 'NMB EXECUTIVE NETWORK'

NMB Executive Network membership card. 

NMB Clients registering. 

 NMB Chief Risk Officer, Tom Borghols addressing the Clients.

NMB Staff and Clients exchanging views.  

NMB Head of Business Banking, Filbert Mponzi answering questions from the Clients.

NMB Manager for the Lake Zone, Straton Chilongola addressing the Clients.

MWANZA - THE National Microfinance Bank (NMB) is undertaking feasibility studies before it decides to give out loans on mining, gas and oil undertakings in the country.

NMB Chief Risk Officer Mr Tom Borghols said here on Monday that the bank is carefully studying the development of the sectors and the involving risks before it finally arrives on the position of whether to dish out loans or not.

"We are aware that of late the mining industry is fast growing in Tanzania as well as the oil and gas sectors but as a bank we are very careful before we can venture into supporting those businesses," he said.

He was responding to a question posed by one mining dealer Mr Chacha Marwa Warioba who challenged the Bank to start dishing out loans to businessmen dealing with mining activities.

Apart from meeting with its corporate customers, the bank also took the opportunity to launch a new service 'NMB Executive Network' which targets to bring all large scale businesses under one roof.

Through the network, the bank plans to bring the businessmen closer to its services by issuing them special Indentification Cards that will enable them get quick services with the bank.

According to the NMB Head of Business Banking Mr Filbert Mponzi the new service has been launched in Mwanza due to the fact that the region and the entire Lake Zone is rapidly expanding economically.

He said the bank has decided to give special services to customers with huge transactions as a way of winning more and that more other packages will also be offered to them.

However, the businessmen who attended the event challenged the bank to improve its services especially in upcountry branches where long queues are now order of the day.

They also asked the bank to work on the issue of the "down system" regularly encountered in some branches mentioning Tarime and Bukoba as examples. But according to Mr Mponzi, the bank is revisiting its computerized systems to make sure they conform to the required standards and speed.

NMB Manager for the Lake Zone Mr Straton Chilongola said efforts are going on for the improvement of the security systems at the bank that will involve all branches.

"We are currently working on the issue of security for both our bank and our customers and many improvements in that area are soon coming," he said.

Mr Mponzi also explained about the questioning exercise the businessmen depositing large sums of money are passing through when they come to bank their money.

According to him, all large sums should be handled with extra care with businessmen being required to explain in details on their business particulars as part of the war on money laundering and cyber crimes.

He said there are specific sums of money that must be accompanied with detailed explanations before they are accepted in the bank as per the Bank of Tanzania (BOT) directives.