Personal loans up: BoT

Dar es Salaam. Personal loans grew by 56 per cent during the third quarter of this year ended in March from a contraction of 4.9 per cent during the first quarter of last year ended in March.

This situation shows how commercial banks are currently dwelling on providing loans to salaried employees, which seems to be more secure portfolio than any other sector of the economy.

The Bank of Tanzania quarterly economic bulletin for March has shown that personal loans now accounts for 27.2 per cent share of all loans in March 2018 from 17.5 per cent in March 2017.

“The observed significant increase in credit growth in personal loans is explained by reclassification of salaried loans, which was previously treated as part of loans to other services in favour of health and education,” reads part of the bulletin.

The second largest share of loans goes to trade which accounted for 20.7 per cent in March, a shrink from 23 per cent recorded in March 2017.

The Bank of Tanzania computations on loans has shown that the share of agriculture loans accounted for 6.5 per cent of all loans in March 2018 from 6.7 per cent recorded during the first quarter of last year.

However, the sector’s loan growth recorded a contraction of 4.3 per cent in March this year from a contraction of 9.2 per cent in March 2017.

Other major gains experienced on building and construction which grew by 16.8 per cent in March 2018 from a contraction of three per cent in March 2017. The share of building and construction to all loans also increased to 5.2 per cent from 4.5 per cent respectively.

The share of hotel and restaurants loans increased to 3.8 per cent in March this year from 3.4 per cent in March last year.