BARCLAYS AFRICA GROUP INVESTS TZS 32 BILLION INTO BARCLAYS BANK TANZANIA

Barclays Bank Tanzania Managing
Director, Mr. Abdi Mohamed.

As part of its commitment to the growth of Barclays Bank Tanzania Limited, Barclays Africa Group Ltd has invested TZS 32 billion as new capital into the Bank.

“The recapitalisation demonstrates Barclays Africa Group’s confidence in the Tanzanian market and the opportunity for growth and expansion,” Barclays Bank Tanzania Managing Director, Mr. Abdi Mohamed said.

The recapitalisation is an investment aimed at positioning the business for growth in the market.

As part of the Barclays Africa Group, Barclays Bank Tanzania has ambitious goals for 2017 and beyond, both for the business in Tanzania and as a Group. The capital is needed to grow the business even further and, in so doing, to take advantage of the many opportunities in Tanzania.

Among others, the recapitalisation will also enable Barclays Bank Tanzania to extend its Single Borrower’s Limit to support development of the corporate business and to invest in employees.

Further, it will allow the Bank to invest in improving services and offering convenience to the customers.

“Barclays Africa Group Ltd believes in the opportunity of the Tanzanian market and is demonstrating its renewed commitment through this recapitalisation of Barclays Bank Tanzania.

According to the Managing Director, the new recapitalization will have no effect on the existing products. “In fact, we are investing in technology and alternate channels to ensure that customers have ready access to our services and products. We are further investing in the development of a full Corporate and Business Banking proposition in the market.

As a business, we are fully committed to ensuring that our products pricing remain competitive on the market. As always, any revision of product pricing will be communicated in a timely and transparent manner,” he said.

Barclays Africa is committed to its pan-African strategy and to supporting its businesses in Tanzania. The strong economic outlook and the optimism about the natural resources sector relating to the development of gas indicate positive economic impact in the long term.

The recapitalisation will enable Barclays Bank Tanzania to take a lead role in Corporate Banking, Debt Capital Markets (DCM) and advisory mandates in key growth sectors, while continuing to dominate its Retail franchise in Prestige and Premier Segments and build on its position in the Personal Segment.

He said that Barclays Bank Tanzania’s strategy is to become the bank of choice for Corporate Clients, in key growth sectors and for Retail and Business banking customers.

For Corporate and Investment, the bank delivers regional expertise and local footprint, while playing a lead role in the financing of key projects that will underpin macroeconomic growth in Tanzania.

In Retail Banking the bank maintains focus to Prestige and Premier Segments and building Personal Segment, and providing better customer service to all segments through alternate channels offering; including Internet Banking, Strategic Hello Money, Barclays Integrator, SMS Alert, e-statement and fully functional iATM, while increasing focus on the Commercial space and increase asset growth in this area.

“We also aim at improving penetration level in the SME space by providing convenience in order to improve on transactional business, FX and deposits,” Abdi said.