NMB BANK AND SAVINGS AT THE FRONTIER PARTNER UP TO OFFER DIGITAL TRANSACTION AND SAVING SOLUTION TO FINANCIALLY EXCLUDED GROUPS

NMB Bank has teamed up with Savings at the Frontier (SatF), a partnership between Mastercard Foundation and Oxford Policy Management, to introduce a unique financial inclusion model aimed at serving thousands of savings and loans groups in the country. Through the partnership, NMB and SatF aim to provide financial solutions to over 28,000 financially excluded groups across the country.

The newly introduced model allows groups and group members to use the bank’s digital advantage which gives them room to self-open group and individual accounts through their mobile phones, manage members’ activities without a physical visit to branches, safely and securely save their excess funds while taking advantage of the growing network of banking agents and mobile money integration.

The new model is an enhancement of the ‘NMB Pamoja Account’ which targets Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs), Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC), Village Community Banks (VICOBA), Community Based Savings Groups (CBSG), Community Based Organizations (CBO), Family and Friends Groups, and links them to the bank with the widest branch network in the country.

NMB’s Acting Managing Director - Ruth Zaipuna (Left) and the Bank’s NMB Chief Retail Officer - Filbert Mponzi (Right) in a jovial mood moments after the official launch of NMB Pamoja Account. Others in the picture are Ms. Zaina Mikidadi (centre) a customer, (From left) the Bank’s Acting Chief Financial Officer - Benedicto Baragomwa, The Bank’s NMB Chief Wholesale Banking - Alfred Shao and the Bank’s NMB Acting Chief Human Resources Officer- Emmanuel Akonaay.

Speaking at the launch, The NMB Bank’s Acting Managing Director – Ruth Zaipuna said: “Our goal is to bridge the gap between the supply of formal financial services and informal savings groups by improving access to financial services. This is an enhancement of the current groups saving product named NMB Pamoja Account for affordable, convenient and easy to access banking services.”

Extending NMB’s commitment to financial inclusion, NMB Pamoja is fully integrated with the NMB Chap Chap account, allowing groups and members to seamlessly transfer funds between groups and individual accounts with zero fees. The platform, which is safer and more convenient, is allowing thousands of savings group members to access formal financial services for the first time.

Other features that increase simplicity and convenience include: being able to make contributions, check balances, view mini-statements, open a group account via USSD (*150*68#), all with no monthly maintenance fee or account operational fee as well as attractive annual interest rates.

“We are very proud to support NMB in this venture. We believe the partnership between NMB and SatF is a great opportunity to test a sustainable and scalable model that could really benefit informal savers in Tanzania and contributes to Bank of Tanzania’s plan for increasing financial inclusion, especially among women.” said Janet Hayes, Team Leader for SatF

The NMB-SatF collaboration breaks new ground, pioneering a new financial inclusion model. The move is expected to pave the way for more investment and participation of other players in the financial services sector. While NMB provides its banking excellence and platform as among the biggest banks in Tanzania, SatF brings to the table global experience and expertise in improving the financial inclusion of low-income individuals and communities in sub-Saharan Africa.