TANZANIA: DEPUTY MINISTER TELLS WOMEN TO UTILISE BANKS

The Deputy Minister for Community Development, Gender and Children, Dr Pindi Chana has urged women to utilise services of commercial banks to lift their standards of living.

Speaking during the opening of Tanzania Women Bank (TWB) branch at Makambako over the weekend, Dr Chana said women in the area should seize that opportunity and make sure that they use loans secured from the bank wisely. “Whenever you take a loan you must repay it.

Loans are not gifts ..use them to increase capital and expand business,” she said. The deputy minister said that the bank seeks to help entrepreneurs develop and has so far issued loans valued at 36bn/- throughout the country.

“We are proud that we have an institution that is active in fighting poverty in the society,” she said. She hailed the bank and requested other financial institutions to emulate it.

Dr Chana said the government was committed to help entrepreneurs in the country because they were among the pillars for the country’s economic growth.

TWB Managing Director, Ms Margareth Chacha, said the bank has embarked on the expansion drive and intended to open more branches.

“We want to cover the whole country because it is only 12 per cent of Tanzanians who access banking facilities and the majority of them are men in urban centres,’ she said.

She said that the bank wanted to empower women and enable them elevate their businesses for their own benefit and the country.

She, however, said that her bank faced several challenges including inadequate capital.

The MD requested to the government to fast-track land surveying to enable people in rural areas, especially women use land as collateral to get loans. Currently, the bank has branches in Mwanza, Dodoma, Ruvuma, Iringa, Mbeya and now in Njombe.